¹fragment

part, portion, piece, member, division, section, segment, fragment mean something less than the whole. part is a general term appropriate when indefiniteness is required <they ran only part of the way>. portion implies an assigned or allotted part <cut the pie into six portions>. piece applies to a separate or detached part of a whole <a puzzle with 500 pieces>. member suggests one of the functional units composing a body <a structural member>. division applies to a large or diversified part <the manufacturing division of the company>. section applies to a relatively small or uniform part <the entertainment section of the newspaper>. segment applies to a part separated or marked out by or as if by natural lines of cleavage <the retired segment of the population>. fragment applies to a part produced by or as if by breaking off <only a fragment of the play still exists>.

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.