Etymology

fraktur

frak·tur
F4R1A1K5T1U1R1

Today it means: A style of black letter type, used especially in German-speaking countries from the 16th century until World War II. Full definition →

German Fraktur ← Latin fractūra ← Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰreg-
  2. Latinfrangō
  3. Latinfrāctūrus
  4. Latinfractūra
  5. GermanFraktur
  6. English todayfraktur

First appears c. 1886 as fractur, and c. 1904 as fraktur, from German Fraktur, from Latin frāctūra (“breaking”, noun), from frangere (“to break”), past participle fractus. Compare English fracture, fraction. Doublet of fracture.

Words from the same roots

Latinfrāctūra all →

fracture

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.