bʰreg-
“to break, to shatter”break, shatter
Root for breaking, yielding English break, breach, fraction (Latin frangere).
Discussion
The Proto-Indo-European root *bʰreg- meant "to break," and its descendants constitute one of the great families of destruction vocabulary. In Latin, the root produced frangere "to break" (with the nasal-infix present), past participle frāctus, from which English inherited fraction, fracture, fragile, fragment, frail (from fragilis through Old French), infraction, infringe, refract, and irrefragable. The Germanic reflex is English break itself (Old English brecan), along with breach and brittle. German brechen continues the same form. The Celtic branch preserves the root in Old Irish braigid. Rix (LIV²) lists the root with multiple present-stem formations. The cultural resonance of *bʰreg- is worth noting: this is not the root of mere damage but of decisive rupture — the snap of bone (fracture), the shattering of light (refract), the violation of law (infringe). From a single PIE verb for breaking, the daughter languages built an architecture of concepts around fragility, transgression, and the irreversible moment when wholeness gives way.
Notes
Pokorny 165. English break, brake, breach, fraction, fragment, frail.
Related Roots
English Words from *bʰreg-
These modern English words descend from this root. Each page traces the full journey from PIE to present-day English.