As a verb, to separate something into pieces or stop it working; as a noun, a pause or rest, or a gap in something.
From Old English “brecan,” meaning “to break, shatter, or violate,” related to many Germanic words for breaking. Its many meanings grew from the core idea of interrupting wholeness.
A “coffee break” and a “broken glass” share the same root idea: something continuous has been interrupted. English loves this word so much that it uses it for almost every kind of interruption—objects, rules, routines, even dawn.
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