debris

Meaning

Noun

• Rubble, wreckage, scattered remains of something destroyed.
• Litter and discarded refuse.
• The ruins of a broken-down structure.
• Large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc.

Origin

• Borrowed from French débris, itself from dé- + bris, or from Middle French debriser, from Old French debrisier, itself from de- + brisier, from Frankish *bristijan, *bristan, *brestan, from Proto-Germanic *brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrest-. Cognate with Old High German bristan, Old English berstan. German bersten More at burst.