bruit

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The Word of the Day for August 19 is:

bruit   \BROOT\   verb
     : report, rumor -- usually used with "about"

Example sentence: 
     The number of rescues by monks [of the Hospice of the Great 
St. Bernard] and their dogs is anyone's guess. The figure of 
2,500 is bruited about. . . ." (Deborah Lawson, _Dog Fancy_, 
Sept. 1991)

Did you know?
     Back in the days of Middle English, the Anglo-French 
noun "bruit," meaning "clamor" or "noise," rattled into English. 
Soon English speakers were also using it to mean "report" 
or "rumor." (It applied especially to favorable reports.) We 
also began using "bruit" as a verb the way we used (and still 
occasionally do use) the verb "noise," with the meaning "to 
spread by rumor or report" (as in "the scandal was quickly 
noised about"). The English noun "bruit" is now considered 
archaic, but the verb lives on. Although "bruit" doesn't have a 
lot of close English relatives, it's a distant cousin of "bray."