fragmentary

Etymology

It is formed from English fragment + -ary;^[1][2][3][4] the OED compares modern French fragmentaire.^[1] Fragment is from French fragment or Latin fragmentum (“a piece broken off, remnant”),^[1][2] from frangō (“to break”),^[1][2] from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Made up of fragments; not complete: 1612, in John Donne's Second Anniversary ("What fragmentary rubbish this world is").^[1][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1611.^[6]

Semantic evolution

For two centuries the word was rare: Johnson (1755) quoted Donne's line but judged it "a word not elegant, nor in use",^[5][1] and Etymonline calls it mainly a dictionary word until the early 19th century.^[2] The OED finds it common only from 1835.^[1] A geological sense, "composed of fragments of older rocks", appears in 1832.^[1][3] Etymonline notes that fragmental was used in the same way from 1798.^[2]

Timeline

• 1612 – composed of fragments; incomplete, disconnected.^[1] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1611.^[6]
• 1832 – in geology, composed of fragments of older rocks.^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made up of fragments; incomplete, broken or disconnected: Only fragmentary records of the voyage survive.^[7][6][1]
2. (geology) Composed of fragments of older rocks; clastic.^[1][3]

Word family

• fragmentarily
• fragmentariness

Related words

• fragment
• fragmental
• fragile
• fraction

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins