Advertisement

Origin and history of brittle

brittle(adj.)

"breaking easily and suddenly," late 14c., britel, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English adjective *brytel, related to brytan "to crush, pound, to break to pieces," from Proto-Germanic stem *brutila- "brittle," from *breutan "to break up" (source also of Old Norse brjota "to break," Old High German brodi "fragile"), from PIE *bhreu- "to cut, break up" (see bruise (v.)). With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to." Related: Brittleness.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to brittle

bruise(v.)

Old English brysan "to crush, pound, injure by a blow which discolors the skin," from Proto-Germanic *brusjan, from PIE root *bhreu- "to smash, cut, break up" (source also of Old Irish bronnaim "I wrong, I hurt;" Breton brezel "war," Vulgar Latin *brisare "to break"). It merged by 17c. with Anglo-French bruiser "to break, smash," from Old French bruisier "to break, shatter," perhaps from Gaulish *brus-, from the same PIE root. Of fruits from early 14c. The intransitive sense of "become bruised" is by 1912. Related: Bruised; bruising.

brothel(n.)

"bawdy house," 1590s, shortened from brothel-house, from brothel "prostitute" (late 15c.), earlier "vile, worthless person" of either sex (14c.), from Old English broðen past participle of breoðan "deteriorate, go to ruin," from Proto-Germanic *breuthan "to be broken up," related to *breutan "to break" (see brittle). In 16c. brothel-house was confused with unrelated bordel (see bordello) and the word shifted meaning from a person to a place.

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    eggshell
    also egg-shell, "the shell or outside covering of an egg, especially the hard, brittle, calcareous covering of birds' eggs...
    lime
    in building, etc. is made by putting limestone or shells in a red heat, which burns off the carbonic acid and leaves a brittle...
    peanut
    Peanut butter is attested by 1892; peanut brittle "hard toffee with peanuts roasted in it" is from 1894....
    arc
    It also has cognates in Greek arkeuthos, Latvian ercis "juniper," Russian rakita, Czech rokyta, Serbo-Croatian rakita "brittle...
    crisp
    It began to mean "brittle" 1520s, for obscure reasons, perhaps based on what happens to flat things when they are cooked....
    antimony
    As the name of a brittle metallic element in a pure form, it is attested in English from 1788....
    candy
    late 13c., "crystallized sugar," from Old French çucre candi "sugar candy," ultimately from Arabic qandi, from Persian qand "cane sugar," probably from Sanskrit khanda "piece (of sugar)," perhaps from Dravidian (compare Tamil kantu "candy," kattu "to harden, condense"). The sense
    arsenal
    c. 1500, "dockyard, dock with naval stores," from Italian arzenale, from Arabic dar as-sina'ah "workshop," literally "house of manufacture," from dar "house" + sina'ah "art, craft, skill," from sana'a "he made." The word was applied by the Venetians to a large wharf in their city
    abrupt
    1580s, "sudden, unceremonious, without notice," a figurative use from Latin abruptus "broken off," also "precipitous, steep" (as a cliff), also "disconnected," past participle of abrumpere "break off," from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + rumpere "to break," from a nasalized form
    week
    Old English wucu, wice, etc., from Proto-Germanic *wikō(n)- (source also of Old Norse vika, Old Frisian wike, Middle Dutch weke, Old High German wecha, German woche), probably originally with the sense of "a turning" or "succession" (compare Gothic wikon "in the course of," Old N

    Share brittle

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near brittle
    Advertisement