>> "The Brutalists always said that, but I never bought it." The Brutalists were disingenuous in many ways. You'll hear the trope "Oh 'Brutalism' doesn't mean

>> "The Brutalists always said that, but I never bought it." The Brutalists were disingenuous in many ways. You'll hear the trope "Oh 'Brutalism' doesn't mean the English word brutal, it's derived from the French 'Béton brut!'" absolutely everywhere in print and on the internet. This is lazy journalism parroting a faux-profound claim, frequently repeated by people trying to look sophisticated. It's e.g. all over the Wiki article on Brutalism and is probably in 10 different comments downthread. The British people who coined and popularized the term (Ventris and the Smithsons, mostly) were native English speakers and were perfectly aware of the connotations/double meaning of the word "brutal" when designing buildings that ordinary people think look like supervillain lairs. The "French etymology" claim is just a twee shibboleth for architectural-world pretension. That said, this site is hilarious.