Etymologically
Log in

fragmen

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfraɡ.mɛn][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfraɡ.men][1]

Forms

fragmen n (genitive fragminis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin frangō (“to break”) + -men.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *frang- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *bhr-n-ǵ- (“to break”), comparing Old High German brehhan (“to break”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Sisenna,[4][5] whose history has dissipatis imbricum fragminibus, with the pieces of the roof tiles scattered.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a piece broken off, a fragment, and is mostly plural: Lewis & Short note that fragmina is poetic and post-Augustan for the classical fragmenta.[2][6] Lucretius has a stream sweeping along fragments of woods, Virgil fragments of oars and of a sword blade, and Ovid the wreckage of a ship and chips of wood laid for a fire.[2][6] In the singular it is a piece of rock, as in Virgil's ingenti fragmine montis, a huge fragment of a mountain.[6][2] Tacitus has fragments of weapons lying beside the limbs of horses, and Suetonius crumbs of bread.[6]

Valerius Flaccus and Silius Italicus use it apparently of the breaking itself, as Silius' rocks that split a mountain with a resounding crash.[2] Church Latin uses it for a fragment or piece.[7]

Timeline

  • 120–67 BC – Sisenna, of broken roof tiles.[2][4][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of fragments of woods carried by a stream.[2][6][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a fragment of a mountain and of broken oars.[2][6][5]
  • end of 1st century AD – Valerius Flaccus, apparently of the breaking itself.[2][6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A piece broken off, a fragment; in the plural, fragments, ruins, wreckage.[2][6][1]
  2. (plural) Chips of wood.[2][6]
  3. A piece of rock.[6]
  4. The act of breaking; a fracture.[2][6]

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 k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson