Etymograph

English

frail

Frail comes from Old French fraile ‘fragile’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-1‘to break’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fragelis2reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfragilis1‘fragile, brittle, easily broken, breakable’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fraile1‘fragile’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500frele1
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588frail1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English frail
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin fragilis
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-Wiktionary, English frail‘to break’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fragelisWiktionary, Latin fragilisreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfragilisWiktionary, English frail‘fragile, brittle, easily broken, breakable’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fraileWiktionary, English frail‘fragile’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500freleWiktionary, English frail
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588frailWiktionary, English frail. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life…”

Linked words

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

break, broken, broke, brigade, brake, bracket, fraction, fracture, fragment, bray, suffrage, fret, breech, refrain, infringe, brogan, refractory, fractal, brogue, 38 more

through Latin fragilis ‘fragile, brittle, easily broken, breakable’

fragile, fragility, 1 more

Another origin of frail

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰleh₂-‘to swing back and forth’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflagrum‘scourge, whip’uncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEflagellum‘whip, lash, scourge’uncertain
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400flaiel‘flail’uncertain
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400frael
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500frayel‘a rushen basket for picking dried fruit’
  7. Englishtodayfrail

Today it means

adj Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish.

Sources

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

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