friable

English

WOTD – 18 March 2010    

Etymology

Latin friābilis, from friō (“to crumble”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: frī'ə-bəl, IPA: /ˈfɹaɪəbl̩/
• Rhymes: -aɪəbəl

Adjective

friable (comparative more friable, superlative most friable)

1. Easily broken into small fragments, crumbled, or reduced to powder.
   • 1977, Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve:

     Spiders had woven their vague trapezes between the friable heads of dead peonies in enormous glass jars streaked with tide marks where the water had evaporated long ago.

   • 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1020:

     This light, friable type of material offered excellent insulation against both desert heat and also the cold of darkness during the winter.

2. (of soil) Loose and large-grained in consistency.
3. (of poisons) Likely to crumble and become airborne, thus becoming a health risk

   • April 1987, Old-House Journal

     It is when asbestos-containing products are friable that hazardous asbestos fibers are likely to be released and sent airborne.

Synonyms

• (easily broken into small fragments): crumbly

Derived terms

• friableness
• friably
• friability

See also

• brittle

Translations

easily broken into small fragments, crumbled, or reduced to powder

• Finnish: hauras (fi), hapero (fi)
• French: friable (fr), cassant (fr)
• Italian: friabile (it)
• Jèrriais: friabl'ye m and f

• Maori: ngahoro (mi)
• Russian: трескающийся (ru) (tréskajuščijsja), крошащийся (ru) (krošáščijsja)
• Spanish: friable (es), frágil (es), quebradizo (es), desmenuzable (es)
• Turkish: ezilgen (tr)

loose and large-grained in consistency

• Finnish: irtonainen (fi)
• French: lâche (fr), friable (fr)
• Italian: allentado (it)
• Jèrriais: friabl'ye m and f

• Maori: takataka (mi), ngahoro (mi)
• Russian: рыхлый (ru) (rýxlyj), сыпучий (ru) (sypúčij) (like sand)
• Spanish: flojo (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: désagrégable (fr) m and f
• Spanish: desmenuzable (es) m and f, desmoronable (es) m and f

References

• friable in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• friable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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French

Etymology

Latin friābilis, from friō (“to crumble”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fʁi.jabl/, X-SAMPA: /fRi.jabl/
• Homophone: friables
• Hyphenation: fri‧able

Adjective

friable (masculine and feminine, plural friables)

1. crumbly
2. crummy, pitiful

Derived terms

• friabilité

References

• “friable” in the Portail lexical, Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, 2013.