brittle

英 ['brɪt(ə)l] 美['brɪtl]

比较级: brittler ;最高级: brittlest;名词: brittleness;

1. break => brittle.

brittle 脆性的

词源同break，破开。-le, 表反复。

brittle: brittle: [14] Brittle probably comes from a Germanic stem *brut- ‘break’, which had several descendants in Old English (including the verbs brēotan and gebryttan ‘break’) that did not survive the Norman Conquest. It came in a more than usual profusion of spellings in Middle English (bretil, brutil, etc), not all of which may be the same word; brottle, for instance, current from the 14th to the 16th century, may well have come from the aforementioned Old English brēotan. There is also the synonymous brickle [15], which survived dialectally into the 20th century; this is related ultimately to break.
brittle (adj.): late 14c., britel, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English adjective *brytel, related to brytan "to crush, pound, to break to pieces," from Proto-Germanic stem *brutila- "brittle," from *breutan "to break up" (cognates: Old Norse brjota "to break," Old High German brodi "fragile"), from PIE *bhreu- "to cut, break up" (see bruise (v.)). With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to."

1. This may help to undermine the brittle truce that currently exists.: 这也许会火上浇油，破坏当前脆弱不稳的休战局面。

2. The pizza base retains its crispness without becoming brittle.: 比萨饼的饼底依然酥脆，也没有变得易碎。

3. These incidents suggest the peace in Northern Ireland is still brittle.: 这些事件表明北爱尔兰的和平仍然很脆弱。