A picture you could hold: a thin glass standing on the edge of a table. Nothing is wrong with it right now — it is whole, it works. But it has no reserve: one knock, one careless hand, and it is gone. Fragile describes that lack of margin, not damage that has already happened.
From the word’s history
From Latin fragilis, from frangere 'to break' — the same root behind fraction and fracture. The word literally means 'breakable', and every modern sense is some version of that.
來自拉丁文 fragilis，字根 frangere 是「打破」；fraction（分數、碎塊）、fracture（骨折、斷裂）都是同一家人。所以 fragile 字面上就是「會破的」。知道這一點很有用：不管後來用在和平、身體還是心情上，底下都是同一個動作——啪一聲斷開。
Wiktionary（fragile 詞源條目，見本題提供的 attested origins）
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原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
fragileadj/ˈfɹæd͡ʒaɪl/
- 1
Easily broken, not sturdy; of delicate material.
- She caught the fragile vase before it could shatter on the floor.
- The chemist synthesizes a fragile molecule.
- 2
Readily disrupted or destroyed.
- The UN tries to maintain the fragile peace process in the region.
- 3
Feeling weak or easily disturbed as a result of illness.
- 4
Thin-skinned or oversensitive.
- He is a very fragile person and gets easily depressed.
fragilenoun/ˈfɹæd͡ʒaɪl/
- 1
Something that is fragile.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。