fragment

Forms

fragment m (plural fragments)^[1] Old French frament (13th century) and the feminine framente (late 12th century); the learned spelling fragment appears about 1500.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fragmentum (“splinter, fragment, debris”).^[2][3][5][1] The older form was remodelled about 1500 after the Latin word.^[3][4] The Latin word is derived from fragmen (“splinter”), from frangō (“to break”).^[3][4]

Cognate with Old Occitan fragment, Spanish fragmento and Italian frammento.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as frament in the rhymed version of the Vie de saint Alexis in the 13th century, for a piece of something broken.^[2][3] The feminine framente occurs in the late 12th century in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The modern spelling appears in the early 16th century, in fragmens espars in Jean Lemaire de Belges.^[2][7] Paré used it about 1560 for a piece of a broken bone.^[3][7][6]

Applied to works, it came to mean what survives of a work whose main part has been lost (1636), an extract (1680, Richelet) and a piece taken out of a work (1803, often in the plural).^[3][2] From 1868 it is used abstractly, as in fragment du passé, in competition with morceau.^[3][7] Littré also records church and pharmacy uses: the small particles of the broken host, and the cinq fragments précieux of old pharmacy.^[6]

Its derivatives are fragmentaire (1801) and fragmenter (1811).^[5]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The feminine framente in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^[2]
• 13th century – Frament in the rhymed Vie de saint Alexis.^[2]
• c. 1500 – The learned spelling fragment appears.^[3][5]
• c. 1560 – Paré uses it for a piece of a broken bone.^[3]
• 1636 – It is used for the surviving part of a lost work.^[3][7]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense of a part of a literary work.^[2]
• 1868 – The abstract use appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of something broken or torn, a shard.^[8][2][6]
2. Part of a work whose main part has been lost or was never written.^[8][3]
3. An extract from a work or a text.^[8][3]
4. (figurative) A part of something abstract, as in fragment du passé.^[3][7]
5. (Christianity) One of the small particles of the broken host.^[6]

Word family

• fragmentaire
• fragmenter

Related words

• fragile
• fraction
• Latin fragmentum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert