English
fractus
Fractus comes from Latin fractus ‘broken, shattered, having been broken’, from frangō ‘break, fragment’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-1‘to break’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangō2‘break, fragment’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfractus3‘broken, shattered, having been broken’
- Englishearliest quotation 2013fractus3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin frango
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin fractus
- 3 Wiktionary, English fractus
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2013, C. Donald Ahrens, Robert Henson: “FIGURE 5.17[…]The ragged-appearing clouds beneath the nimbostratus are stratus…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-Wiktionary, Latin frango‘to break’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangōWiktionary, Latin fractus‘break, fragment’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfractusWiktionary, English fractus‘broken, shattered, having been broken’
- Englishearliest quotation 2013fractusWiktionary, English fractus. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2013, C. Donald Ahrens, Robert Henson: “FIGURE 5.17[…]The ragged-appearing clouds beneath the nimbostratus are stratus…”
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 ‘break, fragment’
fragile, refrain, fragment, fret, infringe, diffraction, infraction, refractory, refraction, 17 more
Today it means
noun A cloud species which consists of broken shreds of cloud; scud.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fractus”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin frango, Latin fractus. 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- / fractus