fragility
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French fragilité, from Latin fragilitās. Doublet of frailty.
Pronunciation
Noun
fragility (countable and uncountable, plural fragilities)
- The condition or quality of being fragile; brittleness; frangibility.
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].
- Weakness; feebleness.
- (obsolete) Liability to error and sin; frailty.
Derived terms
Translations
condition or quality of being fragile
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weakness
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References
- “fragility”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
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- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
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