Broken
/ˈbroʊkən/noun
Damaged, fractured, or no longer working properly.
Did you know?The word traces back to the same deep Germanic root as English break, and its oldest ancestors likely carried the raw physical sense of snapping something apart before it became a metaphor for ruin, failure, and emotional fracture.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bherǵ-
“to break, split, or fracture”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*brekaną
“to break, shatter, or burst apart”
Old English
OE
brecan
“to break, tear, or crush”
Middle English
ME
brooken / broken
“broken; shattered; damaged”
Modern English
English
broken
“damaged, fractured, or not functioning properly”