- breach
- O.E. bryce "breach, fracture, a breaking," from brecan (see break), influenced by O.Fr. breche "breach, opening, gap," from Frankish; both from P.Gmc. *brecho, *bręko "broken," from PIE base *bhreg- "to break" (see fraction). Figurative sense of "a breaking of rules, etc." was in O.E. The verb is first recorded 1570s. Related: Breached; breaching. Breach of contract is at least from 1833.