One way to hold this word: a short, hard hair standing up. Not soft hair that lies down and moves when you touch it — a stiff one that stays where it is and your hand. Now put thousands of them side by side. That field of upright, scratchy points is where everything in this word comes from. Set them in a wooden handle and you have a brush. Watch them lift along a cat's back and you have the verb. Move the same picture onto a person who has just been insulted, and nothing physically rises, but the tension, the hardness and the warning are all still there. Move it onto a harbour full of masts, and the whole surface looks furred with upright things.
From the word’s history
From Middle English bristil, from Old English bristl/byrst, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz, a stiff hair (compare German Borste, a boar's bristle). The stiff hair is the original meaning, not a later picture.
從中古英語 bristil、古英語 bristl／byrst 來，再往上是原始日耳曼語 *burstiz（硬毛），可以比對德語 Borste（公豬的鬃毛）。也就是說，「硬毛」是這個字本來的意思，不是後來才加上的比喻。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:604750544)
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