English, Etymology, Fragment

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fragmentum (“a fragment, remnant”), from frangere, present active infinitive of frangō (“I break”), from Proto-Italic *frangō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”).

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹæɡmənt/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /fɹæɡˈmɛnt/, /ˈfɹæɡmɛnt/

Noun[edit]

fragment (plural fragments)

1. A part broken off; a small, detached portion; an imperfect part, either physically or not

   a fragment of an ancient writing

   I heard a small fragment of the conversation.

2. (grammar) A sentence not containing a subject or a predicate.
3. (computing) An incomplete portion of code.
4. (Internet) A portion of a URL referring to a subordinate resource (such as a specific point on a web page), introduced by the # sign.

   The URL www.example.com/home#recent ends with a fragment.

Verb

fragment (third-person singular simple present fragments, present participle fragmenting, simple past and past participle fragmented)

1. (intransitive) To break apart.
2. (transitive) To cause to be broken into pieces.
3. (transitive, computing) To break up and disperse (a file) into non-contiguous areas of a disk.