brittle Look up brittle at Dictionary.com
M.E. britel, perhaps from an unrecorded O.E. adj. *brytel, related to brytan "to crush, pound, to break to pieces," from P.Gmc. stem *brutila- "brittle," from *breutan "to break up" (cf. O.N. brjota "to break," O.H.G. brodi "fragile"), and related to bruise. With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to."