Brittle

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late Middle English, ultimately of Germanic origin and related to Old English brēotan ‘break up’.

wiktionary

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From Middle English britel, brutel, brotel(“brittle”), from Old English *brytel, *bryttol(“brittle, fragile”, literally “prone to or tending to break”); equivalent to brit +‎ -le.

etymonline

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brittle (adj.)

"breaking easily and suddenly," late 14c., britel, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English adjective *brytel, related to brytan "to crush, pound, to break to pieces," from Proto-Germanic stem *brutila- "brittle," from *breutan "to break up" (source also of Old Norse brjota "to break," Old High German brodi "fragile"), from PIE *bhreu- "to cut, break up" (see bruise (v.)). With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to." Related: Brittleness.