Etymology

breakle

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Today it means: Apt to, capable of, or tending to break; fragile; brittle. Full definition →

Middle English brekil ← Old English *brycel ← Proto-Germanic *brukilaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*brukiz“breakable”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*brukilaz
  3. Old English · derived from*brycel
  4. Middle English · inherited frombrekil
  5. English todaybreakle

From Middle English brekil, brikel, brukel, brokel (“easily broken or shattered, brittle, fragile”), from Old English *brycel, *brucol (as in hūsbrycel (“burglarious”, literally “tending to break into houses, i.e. "house-breakative"”), scipbrucol (“destructive to shipping, causing shipwreck”, literally “tending to break ships or shipping down, i.e. "ship-breakative"”)), from Proto-Germanic *brukilaz, *brukulaz (“liable or tending to break”), extended form of Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breakable”), equivalent to break + -le. Compare brittle.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*brukiz all →

brokerbreach

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.