fragor

Forms

fragor m (genitive fragōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ⟨frag-⟩, the root of frangō (“to break”), with the suffix -or.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces ⟨frangō⟩ to Proto-Italic *frang- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *bʰr-n-ǵ- (“to break”), cognate with Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break”) and Old High German brehhan (“to break”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Lucretius,^[5] who says there is no end to the cutting of bodies and no pause to their breaking up.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense, the act of breaking or splitting, is very rare, found in Lucretius.^[2][6] Usually it is the noise of something breaking, a crash, roar or din, as Cicero's land that announces the enemy's coming by a sort of crashing and its very sound, and of voices a loud clamour, as Virgil's loud wailing in the houses.^[2][6][1] By transfer it is uproar or commotion, as in the Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[2][1]

Döderlein makes fragor a hollow, harsh crashing sound, strepitus a loud noise such as roaring or shrieking, and crepitus a crackling.^[7] Church Latin glosses it “crash, noise, din”.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of breaking up.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the crash of an approaching enemy.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of loud wailing.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A breaking, shattering.^[2][6][1]
2. A crash, roar, din; a loud clamour.^[2][6][1][8]
3. Uproar, commotion.^[2][1]

Word family

• fragōsus

Related words

• fragilis
• fragmentum
• frangō
• strepitus
• crepitus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson