Idiom
nasty, brutish, and short
Meaning
Of a hypothetical state of human life, without a government or society, and marked by constant fear, violence, and insecurity.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Without any laws, life becomes nasty, brutish, and short.”
“Without police or courts, daily life is often nasty, brutish, and short.”
“Survival in the wild can be nasty, brutish, and short for small animals.”
“The philosopher argued that in a state of total anarchy, human existence is inevitably nasty, brutish, and short.”
“The documentary explores how life in the war zone has become nasty, brutish, and short for the families living there.”
“Critics describe the competitive world of that illegal industry as nasty, brutish, and short because no one trusts each other.”
“In the absence of a governing authority to maintain order, the author famously posited that the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Examples
simple
“Without any laws, life becomes nasty, brutish, and short.”
“Without police or courts, daily life is often nasty, brutish, and short.”
“Survival in the wild can be nasty, brutish, and short for small animals.”
contextual
“The philosopher argued that in a state of total anarchy, human existence is inevitably nasty, brutish, and short.”
“The documentary explores how life in the war zone has become nasty, brutish, and short for the families living there.”
“Critics describe the competitive world of that illegal industry as nasty, brutish, and short because no one trusts each other.”
complex
“In the absence of a governing authority to maintain order, the author famously posited that the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Origin
Mentioned in 1651 in Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes: No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Key words
Related idioms
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