Etymologically
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fragment

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfɹæɡmənt/[1]

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
  • 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