saxifrage: [15] The saxifrage is etymologically the ‘stone-breaker’. The word comes via Old French saxifrage from late Latin saxifraga, a compound formed from Latin saxum ‘rock’ and frag-, the stem of frangere ‘break’ (source of English fraction, fracture, etc). The name is an allusion to the fact that the plant grows in crevices in rock, and so gives the impression of splitting the rock. => fraction, fracture, fragment
saxifrage (n.)
type of plant typically found in cold regions, late 14c., from Old French saxifrage (13c.), from Late Latin saxifraga, name of a kind of herb, from Latin saxifraga herba, literally "a rock-breaking herb," from saxifragus "stonebreaking," from saxum "stone, rock" + frag-, root of frangere "to break" (see fraction). Pliny says the plant was so called because it was given to dissolve gallstones, but a more likely explanation is that it was so called because it grows in crevices in rocks. (Latin used different words for "stone" and "gallstone" -- saxum and calculus). Related: Saxifragaceous.
