Breakfast — From Middle English to English | etymologist.ai
breakfast
/ˈbrɛkfəst/·noun·c. 1463 (Middle English brekfast)·Established
Origin
A transparent 15th-century compound — 'break' plus 'fast' — that simply names what the first meal of the day does: ends the night's abstinence from food.
Definition
The first meal of the day, typically eaten in the morning after the night's fast. As a verb, to eat this meal.
The Full Story
Middle English15th centurywell-attested
A transparent compound of break (from OldEnglish brecan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną, from PIE *bhreg- 'to break') and fast (from Old English fæstan 'to abstain from food,' from Proto-Germanic *fastāną 'to hold firm, observe'). The compound literally means 'to break the fast of the night' — to end the period of overnight abstinence from food. First attested in English around 1463 as brekfast, it formalized a concept that had long
Did you know?
French 'déjeuner' (lunch) and 'petit déjeuner' (breakfast) use the same 'break the fast' etymology as English 'breakfast', showing that independent cultures arrived at the same metaphor — though in French the 'breaking' now refers to lunch, having shifted meaning over centuries.
déjeuner (from dé- + jeûner 'to fast'), Spanish desayuno (from des- + ayuno 'fast'), Italian disgiuno, all share the same semantic structure. German Frühstück ('
déjeuner(French (literally 'break fast', same concept))desayuno(Spanish (from des- + ayuno 'fast'))Frühstück(German (literally 'early piece'))colazione(Italian (from Latin collatio, a different metaphor))