brittle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English britel, also brotel, brutel and bretel,^[2][3][4] probably from an unrecorded inherited from Old English *brytel,^[5][6][7][8] from the base of gebryttan (“to break in pieces, shatter”),^[9][2][3] with the adjective suffix -le, "liable to".^[6][10][11] The base is the mutated form of Proto-Germanic *brut-, the weak grade of *breutaną (“to break up”),^[10][8][6] which gave brēotan (“to break, bruise, destroy”),^[12][13][9] Old Norse brjóta (“to break”),^[9][6][13] Swedish bryta and Danish bryde,^[8][12] and is related to Old High German brōdi (“fragile”).^[14][3][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (“to cut, break up”).^[6] Barnhart notes that the vowel of the o-spellings points instead to the Old English verb with the suffix, and that the later form may have arisen from a fusion of both;^[3] Ayto likewise thinks that not all the Middle English spellings are the same word.^[15] The OED (revised 2008) takes it as formed in English from the verb brit and the suffix, and notes that some spellings may instead continue brēþel (“fragile”).^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hard but easily broken, fragile: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[16][3] Barnhart finds the form brotil probably before 1325,^[3] and Chaucer used brotel nine times.^[17]

Semantic evolution

Already in Middle English the word was used figuratively, of things easily hurt or destroyed, and of what is changeable or uncertain.^[2] The OED records "inconstant, untrustworthy" from 1420, "perishable, mortal" from before 1425 to 1777, and "frail, insecure" from before 1450;^[16] in later use this last sense came to describe a person who shows nervousness behind an outward show of confidence.^[16][14] Johnson (1755) defined it as "fragile; apt to break; not tough", quoting Bacon on the twigs of the vine.^[18] The synonym brickle, related to break, survived in dialect into the 20th century.^[15][4] In Scots, brittle could describe a merchant or banker on the edge of insolvency, and in dialect a snappy, irritable temper.^[19] The noun, a toffee with nuts, is an American use first recorded in 1892, in the Los Angeles Times,^[16][14] and later technical senses describe a fracture without plastic deformation (1914) and an unstable form of diabetes or asthma (1948).^[16]

Timeline

• before 1325 – the form brotil.^[3]
• before 1382 – hard but easily broken.^[16][3]
• 1420 – inconstant, unreliable.^[16]
• before 1425 – perishable, mortal (obsolete by 1777).^[16]
• before 1450 – frail, weak, insecure.^[16]
• 1743 – verb, to make brittle.^[16]
• 1892 – noun, a crisp toffee made with nuts.^[16][14]
• 1914 – of a fracture in metallurgy, without plastic deformation.^[16]
• 1948 – of diabetes or asthma, unstable.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hard but easily cracked, snapped or broken; fragile: The old letters had turned yellow and brittle.^[7][14][16]
2. Of a metal or alloy, having very little ductility.^[14][16]
3. Easily damaged or disrupted; frail or insecure: a brittle ceasefire.^[14][16]
4. Tense, curt or nervous in manner, often behind an outward show of confidence: a brittle laugh.^[7][14][16]
5. Hard or sharp in sound or quality.^[7][14]
6. (medicine) Of diabetes or asthma, unstable, with sudden swings in symptoms.^[16]
7. (obsolete) Perishable, mortal (before 1425–1777).^[16][2]

Noun

1. A hard sweet made of caramelized sugar with nuts, set in thin sheets: almond brittle.^[14][7][16]

Verb

1. To make brittle.^[16]

Word family

• brittlely
• brittleness
• embrittle
• brittlebush
• brittle star
• peanut brittle

Related words

• embrittlement
• bruise

Usage notes

A verb brittle, to cut up a deer or boar in hunting, recorded from before 1300, has a separate source: the OED forms it from the verb brit with a frequentative suffix,^[16] and Weekley from brēotan.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
13. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)