The Spanish Quebrar, meaning “to break”, doesn’t obviously sound like any English parallel word. But it is related to many similar ones.
Quebrar comes from the Latin crepare, meaning, “to crack.” Cracking to Breaking is not a far stretch at all — just a natural strengthening of the word.
From the same root crepare, we get many great English words, including:
- Crevice — yes, that little hole caused by… cracks
- Craven — cravenness usually comes from being defeated. Defeat is being cracked.
- Discrepancy — A discrepancy is really just a crack in your argument, isn’t it?
- Decrepit — Old decrepit people are those whose lives have begun to crack in every way.
