different between fracture vs crevasse

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French fracture, from Latin fract?ra (“a breach, fracture, cleft”), from frangere (“to break”), past participle fractus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *b?reg-, from whence also English break. See fraction. Doublet of fraktur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?æk.t??/, /?f?æk.tj?/

Noun

fracture (plural fractures)

1. An instance of breaking, a place where something has broken.
2. (medicine) A break in bone or cartilage.
3. (geology) A fault or crack in a rock.

Derived terms

Related terms

• fractal
• fraction
• fragment

Translations

Verb

fracture (third-person singular simple present fractures, present participle fracturing, simple past and past participle fractured)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break, or cause something to break.
2. (transitive, slang) To amuse (a person) greatly; to split someone's sides.

Translations

Further reading

• fracture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fracture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Middle French fracture, from late Old French fracture, borrowed from Latin fract?ra. Compare the inherited Old French fraiture, and the frainture (influenced by fraindre).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?ak.ty?/

Noun

fracture f (plural fractures)

1. fracture

Related terms

• fraction

Descendants

• ? Romanian: fractur?

Further reading

• “fracture” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Participle

fr?ct?re

1. vocative masculine singular of fr?ct?rus

Spanish

Verb

fracture

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of fracturar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of fracturar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of fracturar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of fracturar.

English

Etymology

From French crevasse. Doublet of crevice.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æs
• IPA^(key): /k???væs/

Noun

crevasse (plural crevasses)

1. A crack or fissure in a glacier or snowfield; a chasm.
2. (US) A breach in a canal or river bank.
3. (by extension) Any cleft or fissure.
   • 2010, Scott R. Riley, A Lost Hero Found (page 111)

     I moved my left hand to the small of her back, just above her belt-line and stroked the peach fuzz in her crevasse with my fingers.

4. (figuratively) A discontinuity or “gap” between the accounted variables and an observed outcome.
   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 105 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     […] he laments that he can find no physiological phenomenon answering to his subject’s winning a race, or losing it. Between his terminal output of energy and his victory or defeat there is a mysterious crevasse. Physiology is baffled.

Translations

Verb

crevasse (third-person singular simple present crevasses, present participle crevassing, simple past and past participle crevassed)

1. (intransitive) To form crevasses.
2. (transitive) To fissure with crevasses.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.vas/
• Rhymes: -as

Etymology 1

Old French crevace, crever +? -asse

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. crevasse

Etymology 2

Inflected forms

Verb

crevasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive of crever

Further reading

• “crevasse” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• crevassa (dated)

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. (glaciology) crevasse (a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field)