Etymograph

English

refract

Refract comes from Latin refrāctum, 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 CEfrangō2‘to break’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErefrāctum2
  4. Englishtodayrefract2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin frango
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English refract

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰreg-Wiktionary, Latin frango‘to break’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrangōWiktionary, English refract‘to break’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErefrāctumWiktionary, English refract
  4. EnglishtodayrefractWiktionary, English refract

Linked words

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

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

through Latin frangō ‘to break’

fragile, fragment, infringe, fracture, fret, diffraction, infraction, fractal, 18 more

Today it means

verb Of a medium, substance, object, etc.: to deflect the course of (light rays), esp. when they enter the medium, etc., at an oblique angle; to cause refraction of (light, other electromagnetic radiation, or sound or other wave phenomena).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “refract”; 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- / refract

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