Etymograph

English

fract

Fract comes from Latin frāctus ‘broken, shattered, having been broken’, from frangō ‘to break’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-1‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangō2as frangere, past participle‘to break’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrāctus2‘broken, shattered, having been broken’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1599fract2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin frango
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English fract
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “Hoſt[ess]. As euer you come of women, come in…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-Wiktionary, Latin frango‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangōWiktionary, English fractas frangere, past participle‘to break’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrāctusWiktionary, English fract‘broken, shattered, having been broken’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1599fractWiktionary, English fract. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “Hoſt[ess]. As euer you come of women, come in…”

Linked words

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

break, broken, broke, brigade, brake, bracket, bray, suffrage, breech, frail, brogan, brogue, 37 more

through Latin frangō ‘to break’

fragile, refrain, fragment, fret, infringe, diffraction, infraction, refractory, refraction, 17 more

Today it means

verb To break; to violate.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “fract”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin frango. 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- / fract

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