The word rupture comes from a huge family. Bankrupt, interrupt, abrupt are all related through the “rupt” despite having such different meanings. And we can’t forget corrupt, erupt, disrupt and irrupt.
Since they were all adapted from
preexisting words in other languages, they did not appear in English in the
order you might expect. The first of the words to show up was corrupt in the mid fourteenth century.
It wasn’t until fifty years later that rupture itself appeared,
along with interrupt.
Disruption and eruption
also showed up at this time, although it wasn’t until a few centuries later
that just disrupt
and erupt
were part of the vocabulary. In fact abrupt
and bankrupt
both predate disrupt and erupt. Irruption
also appeared before irrupt,
but the former didn’t show up until the 1570s and the latter until 1855. Not
that it’s even a common word now.
So that’s their English history. Big
shocker—they all come from classical Latin equivalents. There’s corruptus, disruptus, abruptus…I
think you get the idea. Ruptus with a prefix attached. All come from past
participles of rumpere, which means “to
break”. Although rupture has a different meaning in English (more like bursting
or exploding), the general feeling of destruction is the same. What’s
interesting is what happens when the prefixes get attached.
Look at corrupt for example. There’s
no active destruction, more a moral one. The prefix comes from com-, which in
this case is supposed to be an intensifier. This makes more sense in Latin,
where corruptus has both a literal (destroy) meaning and a figurative one (our
definition of corrupt).
Interrupt has the inter- prefix,
which means “between” and can be traced to the Proto Indo European enter (before you ask, yes).
The word’s meaning is “to break between”, but in a figurative sense. Similarly, disruption means breaking apart figuratively, although in Latin it
meant “shatter” or “break to pieces”, with the dis- prefix meaning apart
it was “shattering apart”.
To us, abrupt usually means a sudden
change. In Latin, abruptus meant “broken off, disconnected”, which probably
greatly influenced how we use the word. The prefix ab- means “off”
and with the figurative “break”…well, you get it.
Erupt comes from the Latin erumpere, which means “to break/burst
out”. The e comes from the prefix ex-, which means out.
It’s one of the few words that stayed with the literal meaning even in English.
There’s also irrupt, which comes from irrumpere.
The ir- comes from in-, which in this case means “into, in on”, making it “to
break into”.
It’s not used very much but it means either “to break in suddenly” or “violent activity or emotion”. Can anyone use it in a sentence? How about a dirty sentence?
Finally, there’s no one’s favorite
word to hear, bankrupt. I’m going to assume we all know what bank means, making
bankrupt a “breaking of your bank”.
TL;DR: “Rupt” means break, usually figuratively,
sometimes literally, with a prefix thrown in to taste.
Sources
Hmm, I'll keep it PG. How about, "My piggy bank suffered an irruption"? After I threw it onto the floor, of course:)
ReplyDeleteI love word origins!
In the Chalet School series, people are always irrupting into rooms.
ReplyDeleteCorrupt... one of the politician's favourite words, though they'll never admit to it...
ReplyDelete