fragile

fragile, frangible, brittle, crisp, friable mean breaking easily. fragile implies extreme delicacy of material or construction and need for careful handling <a fragile antique chair>. frangible implies susceptibility to being broken without implying weakness or delicacy <frangible stone used for paving>. brittle implies hardness together with lack of elasticity or flexibility or toughness <brittle bones>. crisp implies a firmness and brittleness desirable especially in some foods <crisp lettuce>. friable applies to substances that are easily crumbled or pulverized <friable soil>.

The Latin word frangere, meaning “to break,” and its form fractus give us the roots frag and fract. Words from the Latin frangere have something to do with breaking. Something fragile is easily broken. A fraction is a portion broken off from a whole. To fracture something, such as a bone, is to break it. A fragment is a part that has been broken off from something larger or that is incomplete.