English
breach
Breach comes from Middle English breche.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English breach
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule, And death…”.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500brecheWiktionary, English breach
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588breachWiktionary, English breach. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule, And death…”
A compound of bryċe ‘fracture, breach’ + brǣċ ‘breach, breaking, destruction’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰrég-e-ti
Proto-Germanic *brekaną ‘to break’
Proto-Germanic *brukiz ‘fissure’
Proto-West Germanic *bruki ‘break’
Old English bryċe ‘fracture, breach’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break’
Proto-Germanic *brekaną ‘to break’
Proto-West Germanic *brekan ‘to break’
Old English brecan ‘breach, breaking, destruction’
Linked words
through Middle English breche
Today it means
noun A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee / embankment; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “breach”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle English breche / breach