Etymology

unbreakable

U1N1B3R1E1A1K5A1B3L1E1

Today it means: Difficult or impossible to break and therefore able to withstand rough usage. Full definition →

English break ← Middle English breken ← Old English brecan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*bʰreg-
  9. Proto-Indo-European*bʰrégeti
  10. Proto-Germanic*brekaną
  11. Proto-West Germanic*brekan
  12. Old Englishbrecan
  13. Middle Englishbreken
  14. Englishbreak
  15. English todayunbreakable

From un- + break + -able.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.