fragil

Forms

fragil m or n (feminine singular fragilă, masculine plural fragili, feminine/neuter plural fragile)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fragile and directly borrowed from Latin fragilis (“easily broken, brittle”).^[2][3][1] The DA gives French alone, Tiktin the Latin word, taken directly or through another language, and DN names Italian fragile as well.^[4][5][6] The Latin adjective is formed on frangō (“to break, shatter”) with the suffix -ilis.^[7][1] French took the word from Latin in the 14th century.^[8] The inherited French outcome of the Latin word is frêle.^[8]

Graur lists the word among the Romanian descendants of the family of the same Latin verb, beside frânge, fragment and fractură.^[9] Gabinschi groups it with fraged “tender”, an older Romanian word of the same Latin origin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1837, in the sense “breakable”.^[5] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it with the native fraged and as “easy to break”.^[11] MDA2's first record is from Odobescu's writings, collected in 1887.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, of materials that break or shatter easily, soon gained a figurative one: weak, not resistant, unstable.^[4][12] In 1929 Șăineanu also gave “prone to err”, as in the frailty of human nature, and CADE in 1931 a matching sense “fallible”.^[13][14] Modern dictionaries add “delicate, frail” for people and things of slight build.^[2][15]

In Transylvania, through the spread of the scientific name Anguis fragilis, fragil became a masculine noun for the legless lizard called the slow-worm.^[4][3] Scriban noted that the stress on the last syllable follows French; the Latin word is stressed on the first.^[12] Tiktin records an old form fraghil.^[5]

Timeline

• 1837 – first record, “breakable”.^[5]
• 1848 – Negulici explains it with fraged.^[11]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses fragilŭ as “tender, easily broken”, figuratively “prone to error”.^[16]
• 1887 – in Odobescu's collected writings.^[3]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the figurative sense “prone to err”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of materials) That breaks, shatters or crumbles easily; fragile, brittle.^[2][3]
2. Delicate, frail, of slight build.^[2][15]
3. (figurative) Weak, not resistant; insecure, unstable.^[3][12]

Noun

1. (regional, Transylvania) The slow-worm (Anguis fragilis), from its scientific name.^[3][4]

Word family

• fragilitate

Related words

• fraged
• frânge
• fragment
• Latin fragilis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 411
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 937
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. fragil
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fragil
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. fragil
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 47
10. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 105
11. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. fragil
12. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 524
13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 258
14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. fragil
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. fragil
16. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 454