Jump To:

• et tu, Brute
  et tu, Brute

  and thou, Brutus!: alleged dying words of Julius Caesar uttered as his friend Brutus stabbed him.
• Et tu, Brute?
  Et tu, Brute?

  A Latin sentence meaning “Even you, Brutus?” from the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Caesar utters these words as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend Brutus among the assassins.

et tu, Brute

American  

[et too broo-tay] / ɛt ˈtu ˈbru teɪ /

Latin.

1. and thou, Brutus!: alleged dying words of Julius Caesar uttered as his friend Brutus stabbed him.

---

Et tu, Brute? Cultural  

1. A Latin sentence meaning “Even you, Brutus?” from the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Caesar utters these words as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend Brutus among the assassins.

---

Discover More

“Et tu, Brute?” is used to express surprise and dismay at the treachery of a supposed friend.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

et tu, Brute Et tu, Brute?

Representing the et tu, Brute wing of Davis' party is his Lieutenant Governor, Cruz Bustamante.

From Time Magazine Archive

“Oh no, et tu, Brute? You were my last hope. With By and Joey and your mother popping up every few minutes asking ‘Are we there yet?’ it’s been like a stuck record.”

From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis

“Francis,” I said weakly, and was silenced by a glare of hatred: et tu, Brute.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

It would have been a sure-enough case of et tu, Brute, if you hadn’t been.

From Aladdin & Co. A Romance of Yankee Magic by Herbert Quick

Ho, ho! my merry figure-head at the prow, this from you, et tu Brute!

From Rodney, the Ranger With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield by John Goss

This especially pleases Midwest chauvinists, who have had to contend with curdled despisers from — Et tu, Brute? — the Midwest.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022

I love the fact that the authors are picked up on their attempt to prove that the Romans did begin sentences with conjunctions by quoting "Et tu, Brute?"

From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2013

It is a shockingly intense scene and, as he is struck by Brutus, his favorite, Caesar clutches and almost kisses him, uttering a scarcely audible "Et tu, Brute?"

From Time Magazine Archive

Then he looked at me rather with that Shakespeare fellow's Et tu Brute look: 'Why, Jobbins, you, who are so amiable?'

From Nights Rome, Venice, in the Aesthetic Eighties; London, Paris, in the Fighting Nineties by Elizabeth Robins Pennell

"Luttrell, of all men!" thinks Sir Penthony, as though he would have said, "Et tu, Brute?" forgetting to come forward,—forgetting everything,—so entirely has a wild, unreasoning jealousy mastered him.

From Molly Bawn by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---