Brittling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of causing something to become fragile or easily breakable
2. the phenomenon where a material loses its flexibility and strength
3. a condition in which an item becomes susceptible to cracking or shattering under stress

Etymology: The word "brittling" is simply the present participle of "brittle," the adjective that describes something that breaks easily. Its root goes back to Old English, where "brytel" or "bryttol" meant "brittle" or "fragile," and the sense was literally "prone to or tending to break." That makes the old word a built-up form: it combines "brit," a stem related to the idea of breaking, with the suffix "-le," which marks something apt to do the thing named by the stem. Middle English later reshaped the word into "britel," "brutel," and "brotel," before the modern spelling settled in. Through all these forms the core idea stayed the same, so a brittle object has always been one that is already halfway to shattering.

Synonyms: fragile, breakable, shatterable

Antonyms: durable, tough