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Origin and history of frail

frail(adj.)

mid-14c., "morally weak," from Old French fraile, frele "weak, frail, sickly, infirm" (12c., Modern French frêle), from Latin fragilis "easily broken" (from PIE root *bhreg- "to break"). It is the Frenchified form of fragile. Sense of "easily destroyed, liable to break" in English is from late 14c. The U.S. slang noun meaning "a woman" is attested from 1908; perhaps with awareness of Shakespeare's "Frailty, thy name is woman."

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to frail

fragile(adj.)

1510s, "liable to sin, morally weak;" c. 1600, "liable to break;" a back-formation from fragility, or else from French fragile (Old French fragele, 14c.), from Latin fragilis "easily broken," from root of frangere "to break" (from PIE root *bhreg- "to break"). Transferred sense of "of frail constitution" (of persons) is from 1858.

*bhreg-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to break."

It might form all or part of: anfractuous; Brabant; bracken; brake (n.1) "stopping device for a wheel;" brake (n.2) "kind of fern;" brash; breach; break; breccia; breeches; brioche; chamfer; defray; diffraction; fractal; fraction; fractious; fracture; fragile; fragility; fragment; frail; frangible; infraction; infringe; irrefragable; irrefrangible; naufragous; ossifrage; refract; refraction; refrain (n.); refrangible; sassafras; saxifrage; suffragan; suffrage.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit (giri)-bhraj "breaking-forth (out of the mountains);" Latin frangere "to break (something) in pieces, shatter, fracture;" Lithuanian braškėti "crash, crack;" Old Irish braigim "break wind;" Gothic brikan, Old English brecan "to break."

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    delicate
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