fret

Meanings

Verb

• Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.
• To chafe or irritate; to worry.
• To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.
• In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.
• To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.
• To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.
• To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.
• To be anxious, to worry.
• To be agitated; to rankle; to be in violent commotion.
• To have secondary fermentation (fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar to alcohol in beers and wine) take place.
• To decorate or ornament, especially with an interlaced or interwoven pattern, or with carving or relief (raised) work.
• To form a pattern on; to variegate.
• To cut through with a fretsaw, to create fretwork.
• To bind, to tie, originally with a loop or ring.

Noun

• Agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or some other cause; a rippling on the surface of water.
• Agitation of the mind marked by complaint and impatience; disturbance of temper; irritation.
• Herpes; tetter.
• The worn sides of riverbanks, where ores or stones containing them accumulate after being washed down from higher ground, which thus indicate to miners the locality of veins of ore.
• An ornamental pattern consisting of repeated vertical and horizontal lines, often in relief.
• A saltire interlaced with a mascle.
• A ferrule, a ring.
• One of the pieces of metal, plastic or wood across the neck of a guitar or other string instrument that marks where a finger should be positioned to depress a string as it is played.
• A channel, a strait; a fretum.
• A channel or passage created by the sea.
• A fog or mist at sea, or coming inland from the sea.

Origin

• From Middle English frēten ("to eat; to devour, eat up; to bite, chew; to consume, corrode, destroy; to rub, scrape away; to hurt, sting; to trouble, vex"), from Old English fretan ("to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst"), from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną ("to consume, devour, eat up"), from Proto-Germanic *fra- ("for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’") (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- ("forward, toward")) + *etaną (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- ("to eat")).
• The word is cognate with Dutch vreten, fretten, Low German freten ("to eat up"), German fressen ("to devour, gobble up, guzzle"), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 ("to devour"), Swedish fräta ("to eat away, corrode, fret"); and also related to Danish fråse ("to gorge").
• The senses meaning “to chafe, rub” could also be due to sound-association with Anglo-Norman *freiter (modern dialectal French fretter), from Vulgar Latin *frictāre, frequentative of Latin fricāre, from fricō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- ("to cut"); compare Old French froter (modern French frotter). The chief difficulty is the lack of evidence of the Old French word.
• From Middle English frēten ("to adorn, decorate, ornament"), from Old French freté, freter, fretter, from Old French fret (from fraindre, from Latin frangō ("to break, shatter"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ("to break")) + Old French -er ("suffix forming verbs") (from Latin -āre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃enh₂- ("to burden, charge")).
• From Old French frete ("ferrule, ring") (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).
• From Latin fretum ("channel, strait").
• From Old French frete, fraite, fraicte, possibly partly confused with fret.
• Attested since the mid-1800s, of unknown origin. Perhaps related to fret, fret (as the fog does the land), or fret (as the wind which blows the fog inland does); compare the semantics of haar. Dialectally, the spelling freet and pronunciation are also found, as they also are for fret.