A small, hard block, usually made of baked clay, used for building walls and other structures.
From Middle Dutch “bricke” or Old French “briche,” meaning “brick,” possibly from a root meaning “breakable piece.” Bricks were seen as regular, man‑made stones.
Bricks are one of humanity’s earliest “technology hacks” for turning mud into stone on demand. The word’s spread across Europe mirrors the spread of cities built from identical, human‑made blocks.
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