fractura

Forms

frāctūra f (genitive frāctūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin frangō (“to break”) + -ūra, a noun of action,^[2][3] which Wiktionary explains as the feminine future participle frāctūrus used as a noun.^[1] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *frang- and Proto-Indo-European *bhr-n-ǵ- (“to break”).^[4] Cognate with Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan) and Old High German brehhan “to break”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to use it, of a broken bone: in his work on farming he prescribes a remedy to be bound “ad luxum aut ad fracturam”, on a dislocation or a fracture.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant the act of breaking, above all the medical fracture of a bone, and also a split or fractured place;^[2][5] Celsus discusses how a fracture near the head of a bone is worse,^[2][5] and Pliny the Elder uses the plural.^[5] In Ecclesiastical Latin it kept the senses of breaking, breach and crack.^[7]

Medieval Latin gave it legal senses: a forced entry into a property and the fine paid for it,^[8] and in British sources damage to a ship, the right to a wreck, and a breach in a channel, the last as a calque on Middle English breche.^[9] English took it over as fracture in the 15th century.^[10]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a broken bone.^[2][6]
• AD 14–37 – Celsus uses it in his discussion of bone fractures.^[2][6]
• AD 23/24–79 – Pliny the Elder uses the plural for fractures treated with remedies.^[2][5][6]
• early 15th century – English borrows it, partly through Old French, as fracture, a breaking of a bone.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of breaking;^[2][5] (medicine) a fracture of a bone.^[2][5]
2. A split, cleft or fractured place.^[2][5]
3. A broken piece, fragment.^[1]
4. (Medieval Latin, law) A forced entry, intrusion; the fine paid for it.^[8]
5. (Medieval Latin) Damage to a ship; the right to the proceeds of a shipwreck.^[9]

Related words

• English fracture

Usage notes

The grammarian Priscian counted it among the feminine future active participles, like pictūra, ūsūra and nātūra, that came to be used for the thing itself.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com