Brote

Brote is a term used in Spanish (and, in similar form, in Portuguese) with several related meanings centered on emergence and new growth. In botany, brote refers to a bud or shoot—an undeveloped or developing growth point on a plant, such as a new stem, branch, or leaf bud that emerges after dormancy or pruning. It is a everyday word for the plant’s young, vigorous growth and is commonly used in horticulture and agriculture.

In a medical and public health context, brote denotes a sudden increase or appearance of disease cases within a specific population and time frame, i.e., an outbreak. It is used with qualifiers to indicate the nature of the event, such as “brote epidémico” (epidemic outbreak) or “brote de gripe” (flu outbreak). The term can also describe the abrupt emergence of other phenomena, not limited to illness, when something new appears rapidly in a community.

In everyday language, brote can describe both literal and figurative growth: sprouts on a plant, fresh growth in a garden, or the onset of new problems or trends, such as a brote de violencia (outbreak of violence) or other sudden developments. The word is formed from the verb brotar, meaning to sprout or to emerge, and is widespread in Spanish and Portuguese.

See also related terms in plant biology and epidemiology for more precise technical usage, as well as regional variations in how the word is applied in different Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities.