fragility n.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to break."

It forms all or part of: anfractuous; Brabant; bracken; brake (n.1) "stopping device for a wheel;" brake (n.2) "kind of fern;" brash; breach; break; breccia; breeches; brioche; chamfer; defray; diffraction; fractal; fraction; fractious; fracture; fragile; fragility; fragment; frail; frangible; infraction; infringe; irrefragable; irrefrangible; naufragous; ossifrage; refract; refraction; refrain (n.); refrangible; sassafras; saxifrage; suffragan; suffrage.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit (giri)-bhraj "breaking-forth (out of the mountains);" Latin frangere "to break (something) in pieces, shatter, fracture;" Lithuanian braškėti "crash, crack;" Old Irish braigim "break wind;" Gothic brikan, Old English brecan "to break."

1510s, "liable to sin, morally weak;" c. 1600, "liable to break;" a back-formation from fragility, or else from French fragile (Old French fragele, 14c.), from Latin fragilis "easily broken," from root of frangere "to break" (from PIE root *bhreg- "to break"). Transferred sense of "of frail constitution" (of persons) is from 1858.

mid-14c., freylte, from Old French fraileté "frailty, weakness," from Latin fragilitatem (nominative fragilitas) "weakness, frailty," from fragilis "fragile" (see fragility). Related: Frailties.