fragment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fragment, also fragmente,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin fragmentum (“a broken piece, remnant”),^[2][4][3][5] formed from frag-, the root of frangō (“to break”), with the suffix -mentum.^[3][6][7] The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”),^[4][5] the root of break.^[5][6] The OED, whose record starts only in 1531, derives the word from French fragment (16th century) or from the Latin,^[8] and the SOED and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow both sources too.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small part or piece: about 1425, in "a grete myracle of a fragment of brede".^[2] Barnhart's first record is probably from before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which speaks of crumbs from the table of lords and the fragmentes left to their children.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The OED's record of the noun begins in 1531, in Elyot's Governour, with the figurative sense of an isolated or incomplete part,^[8] and the literal "piece broken off" follows in 1583.^[8] From 1614 a fragment was also a surviving part of a lost work, or a part of a work left unfinished.^[8] Shakespeare used it as a term of contempt for a person in Troilus and Cressida (1609).^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a part broken from the whole; an imperfect piece".^[11] The verb, to break into fragments, is recorded from 1818, in Keats's Endymion,^[8][3][6] though Etymonline finds it implied in fragmented by 1788 and dates the intransitive use from 1961.^[4] The adjective fragmentary dates from 1611, in Donne's letters.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – a small piece or part.^[2][3]
• 1531 – a detached or incomplete part, figuratively.^[8]
• 1583 – a piece broken off.^[8]
• 1609 – a contemptuous name for a person (obsolete by 1616).^[8]
• 1611 – fragmentary.^[3]
• 1614 – a surviving part of a lost or unfinished work.^[8]
• 1818 – verb, to break into fragments.^[8][3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece broken off or detached from a whole: fragments of broken glass.^[12][6][8]
2. An incomplete or isolated part of something: She caught only fragments of the conversation.^[12][6][8]
3. A surviving part of a lost work, or a part of a work never finished.^[8][6]

Verb

1. To break or cause to break into fragments.^[12][6][9]
2. To divide into separate parts that no longer form a unified whole: The party fragmented after the election.^[6][9]

Word family

• fragmental
• fragmentary
• fragmentation
• sentence fragment

Related words

• fractal
• fraction
• fractious
• fracture
• refract
• refractive
• refraction
• refractory
• refrangible
• refringent
• infract
• infraction

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University 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. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins