Oh my word Broach, Brooch

Who will take the initiative to broach reconciliation when relations between two people turn sour? The lady wearing a glittering brooch caught the attention of passengers at the railway station! Broach and brooch are pronounced alike but have completely different meanings.

Brooch is pronounced as brohch. Brooch is a noun: a safety pin to fasten clothes or garments together. Brooch is used to fasten clothes as it has a ‘hinged pin’, so that it is pinned to something. It is worn by women often for decorative purposes. It is also made of precious metals and stones.

Brooch is also a variant spelling for broach but they have exclusive or independent meanings. Broach functions as noun and a verb. Broach as a verb means to raise a subject or a topic for discussion. Broach indicates to raising or bringing up a subject for discussion, speak or talking of something, raise the topic or mentioning about a subject for talking or for discussion.

After sitting next to each other for three hours, one of the passengers broached about weather, and politics, and showbiz news. The husband and wife did not utter a word to each other but after eighty-seven hours the husband broached the subject of groceries and laundry!

The political parties in opposition (out of power because people have voted out of governing the country) always aims to broach the failures of the ruling party in the parliament or legislature which is its primary role. Bilateral relations between two warring countries could grow for better when one of the countries broach for dialogue.

Broach also means to uncork, piercing or puncturing a bottle or container to take out the contents; to piece a cask to bring out or draw liquor from the cask, making a hole in a barrel or cask to draw the liquid, opening a bottle to use the liquid; broach also refers to open and start using the contents of a box or a container.

Shall we broach one more bottle of champagne? When the group of friends met after a decade they broached seven casks of lager. Broach as a noun refers to a bit for boring/making holes; in masonry broach is type of chisel for cutting stones. Broach is a roasting-spit for cooking food.

Broach comes from the Latin word brocc(h)us meaning projecting. The variants of the verb broach are broaches, broached, broaching. Broacher is the one who opens or utters about a topic for talking or discussing, the first promoter or publisher. Who is the broacher of R K Narayan’s first novel?

Kovuuri G Reddy