Meaning

verb terminate

verb become separated into pieces or fragments

verb render inoperable or ineffective

originFrom Middle English broken, from Old English brocen, ġebrocen, from Proto-Germanic *brukanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”). Cognate with Dutch gebroken (“broken”), German Low German broken (“broken”), German gebrochen (“broken”). Morphologically broke + -n.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0