breakable (English)

Where does "breakable" come from?

The English adjective 'breakable' is formed by combining the native verb 'break' with the suffix '-able'[1]. The verb 'break' traces back through Middle English 'breken'[4] and Old English 'brecan'[3] to the Proto-West Germanic '*brekan'[6]. Ultimately, the word descends from the Proto-Germanic '*brekaną'[5], which is rooted in the Proto-Indo-European base '*bʰreg-' meaning 'to break'[2].

Open questions

• The precise origin of the irregular Early Modern English pronunciation change from the vowel sound representing the past tense in break to the modern diphthong remains a subject of linguistic discussion. [2]

Full etymology tree

• breakable (English), 'Able to break or be broken.'
  • derived break (English), 'To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.'
    • inherited breken (Middle English), 'To break up or split; to break into two or more pieces'
      • inherited brecan (Old English), 'to break'
        • inherited *brekan (Proto-West Germanic), 'to break'
          • inherited *brekaną (Proto-Germanic), 'to break'
            • derived *bʰreg- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to break'
  • affix -able (English), 'An adjectival suffix; forms adjectives meaning:'

Ancestors

• break (English)
• -able (English)

Descendants and derived words

• breakableness (English)
• breakably (English)
• nonbreakable (English)
• nonbreakable (English)

Sources

1. breakable (English) - Wiktionary
2. break (English) - Wiktionary
3. brecan (Old English) - Wiktionary
4. breken (Middle English) - Wiktionary
5. brekaną (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
6. brekan (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

More words starting with B

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris