Brosier

This Eton phrase, the meaning of which is very correctly explained Lord Braybrooke (Vol. i., p. 485.), appears to be connected with the Cheshire provincialism, which is thus interpreted in Wilbraham's *Cheshire Glossary*:— "'Brosier, *s.* a bankrupt.' It is often used by boys at play, when one of them has nothing further to stake." The noun *brosier*, as Mr. Wilbraham indicates, seems to be derived from the old word *brose*, or, as we now say, *bruise*. A *brosier* would therefore mean a broken-down man, and therefore a bankrupt. The verb *to brosier*, as used at Eton, would easily be formed f…