A plain compound: break + fast, ending the overnight fast. Replaced Old English morgenmete, "morning meal," in the 1400s. The frame reflects a culture shaped by religious fasting.
Esoteric readings argue it proves everyday English is saturated with ritual vocabulary, millions unknowingly framing their first meal as a sacred act.
Medieval Europe looked down on morning eating. Breaking the fast early signaled weakness, and moralists wrote against it; the disciplined ate once or twice, later. Breakfast had to be rehabilitated before it could be marketed as the most important meal of the day, a phrase born in 20th-century advertising.
A meal named after discipline, eaten without any. Did the habit outlive the belief?