Etymograph

English

infraction

Infraction comes from Latin infractio ‘breaking to pieces’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-1‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangō2as frangere‘to break’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinfractum2
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinfractio2‘breaking to pieces’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600infraction2
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2016infraction2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin frango
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English infraction
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2016, Ahiza Garcia, NFL teams may now get fined for their social media posts: “A team's first infraction could mean a fine of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-Wiktionary, Latin frango‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangōWiktionary, English infractionas frangere‘to break’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinfractumWiktionary, English infraction
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEinfractioWiktionary, English infraction‘breaking to pieces’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600infractionWiktionary, English infraction
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2016infractionWiktionary, English infraction. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2016, Ahiza Garcia, NFL teams may now get fined for their social media posts: “A team's first infraction could mean a fine of…”

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’

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

Today it means

noun A minor offence, petty crime.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “infraction”; 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- / infraction

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