Etymograph

English

diffraction

Diffraction comes from Latin diffrāctus ‘shattered’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-1‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangō2‘to break, shatter’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdiffringo3‘to shatter, to break into pieces’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdiffrāctus3‘shattered’past participle of diffringo
  5. New Latinc. 1500–1900diffrāctiō3
  6. Englishtodaydiffraction3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin frango
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin diffringo
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English diffraction

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-Wiktionary, Latin frango‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangōWiktionary, Latin diffringo‘to break, shatter’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdiffringoWiktionary, English diffraction‘to shatter, to break into pieces’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdiffrāctusWiktionary, English diffraction‘shattered’past participle of diffringo
  5. New Latinc. 1500–1900diffrāctiōWiktionary, English diffraction
  6. EnglishtodaydiffractionWiktionary, English diffraction

The story

From New Latin diffrāctiō (in which coined by Francesco Maria Grimaldi), from Latin diffrāctus, past participle of Latin diffringo (‘to shatter, to break into pieces’). Coined in Physico-mathesis de lumine (1665) by Francesco Maria Grimaldi.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break’

break, broken, broke, brigade, brake, bracket, bray, suffrage, frail, breech, brogan, brogue, 36 more

through Latin frangō ‘to break, shatter’

fragile, refrain, fragment, fracture, fret, infringe, refractory, fractal, infraction, refraction, 16 more

Today it means

noun The bending of a wave around an obstacle.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “diffraction”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin frango, Latin diffringo. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- / diffraction

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