Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/119

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Bursche and Kamerad; the modern sense dates from the beginning of the 17th cent.

frech, adj., ‘bold, insolent, shameless,’ from MidHG. vrëch, adj., ‘courageous, bold, daring,’ OHG. frëh(hh), ‘covetous, greedy’; corresponding to Goth. *friks only in faíhufriks, ‘covetous, avaricious’ (with respect to faílu, ‘money,’ see Vieh), OIc. frekr, ‘greedy,’ AS. frec, ‘daring.’ ‘Greedy’ was probably the primary meaning of the adj. stem freka- common to Teut.; when specially applied to war it meant ‘eager for combat, daring’; AS. frëca acquired the meaning ‘warlike hero,’ earlier E. freak, ‘hero, man.’ For early Teut. words similarly restricted in meaning when applied to a warrior's life, see bereit, fertig, rüstig. There are derivatives of the OTeut. freka-, Goth. friks, in the Romance languages — OFr. frique, ModProv. fricaud, ‘cheerful, lively.’ Teut. freka-, from pre-Teut. prĕgo-, scarcely belongs to fragen.

frei, adj., ‘free, exempt, frank, voluntary,’ from the equiv. MidHG. vrî, OHG. frî; a common Teut. stem frija-, ‘free’ (unknown only to Scand.), which is assumed by Goth. freis (acc. sing., mas. frijana), AS. frî, freó (from frija-), E. free, OLG. frî. From these are formed the abstracts — Goth. freihals, ‘freedom,’ lit. ‘having one's neck free,’ AS. freóls, ‘freedom’ (also ‘peace, quiet’; comp. freólsdœg, ‘holiday’). Scand. frjáls for the non existent *frîr, ‘free,’ is identical with these words, being used as an adj. signifying ‘with a free neck’; akin to OHG. and MidHG. frîhals, ‘freeman.’ A ring around the neck was an OTeut. mark of a slave. Although frija- prevails throughout the Teut. group in its modern sense ‘free,’ to which W. ridd, ‘free’ (from prija-), also corresponds, yet there is some evidence that the meanings ‘dear, loved,’ once belonged to the adj. in earliest Teut.; comp. the corresponding abstr. Goth. frijaþwa, ‘love,’ AS. freód (for *frijôdus), ‘love, favour,’ AS. frîgu, ‘love’ (also freódryhten, freóbearn); allied to Goth. frijôn, ‘to love,’ mentioned under Freund and Friede. All these derivatives point to a Teut. root frî, ‘to cherish, spare, treat forbearingly’ (MidHG. vrî-ten, Goth. freidjan, ‘to spare’); frei in an active sense should perhaps be compared with held, which also denoted the relation of the higher to the meaner person. Frei is lit. ‘loving, loved, spared.’ This sense is placed beyond doubt by the earlier history of the

word — Goth. frija-, from pre-Teut. priyó-; comp. Sans. priyâ-s, ‘dear, favourite,’ from the root prî ‘to rejoice, make well-disposed,’ In OAryan the fem. of the adj. priyã means ‘spouse,’ also ‘daughter’; to this OSax. frî, and AS. freó, ‘wife,’ correspond. With the Sans. root prî, OSlov. prijaja (prijati), ‘to assist,’ prijateljĭ, ‘friend,’ are also connected. See Freitag, freien, Freund, Friede, Friedhof.

freien, vb., ‘to woo,’ from MidHG. vrîen, ‘to woo, marry’; unknown to UpG., prop. a LG. word, made current chiefly by Luther, Comp. Du. vrijen, ‘to sue for’ (MidHG. vrîen, ‘to set see, rescue,’ must in the main be regarded as a different word). In the sense of ‘to woo, marry,’ the verb must be directly connected with the OTeut. root frî, ‘to love’; comp. OSax. frî, ‘wife, beloved.’ For the diffusion of the Teut. root frî (from Aryan prî); see frei, Freitag, and also Freund.

freilich, adv., from the equiv. MidHG. vrîlîche, adv., ‘certainly, by all means,’ prop. adv. from vrîlîch, ‘free, boundless.’

Freitag, m., ‘Friday,’ from the equiv. MidHG. vrîtac, OHG. frîatag, m., ‘dies Veneris’; corresponding to Du. vrijdag, AS. frîgdœg, frîgedœg, E. Friday, ‘dies Veneris,’ OIc. Frjádagr (for which Föstadagr, ‘fast day,’ is used in ModIc.); lit. ‘Freia’s day’ (primit. Teut. Frijjó), equiv. to Lat. dies Veneris. Freia corresponds to Venus. OIc. Frigg, like OHG. Frîa, is lit. ‘lover, goddess of love’; akin to Sans. priyã, f., ‘spouse, beloved’ (OSax. frî, AS. freó, ‘wife’). See frei.

Freite, f., ‘wooing, courtship,’ from MidHG. vrîât, vrîâte, f., ‘making an offer of marriage’; abstract noun from freien; also in the same sense MidHG. vrîe; an essentially Mid. word.

fremd, adj., ‘strange, foreign, unfamiliar, peculiar,’ from MidHG. vręmede, vręmde, ‘foreign, distant, strange, singular, rare,’ OHG. framadi, fręmidi, ‘foreign, singular’; a common Teut. adj. for ‘foreign,’ unknown only to Scand.; comp. Goth. framaþs, ‘foreign, estranged, excluded from,’ AS. fręmþe, fręmde, ‘foreign, alien, estranged’ (E. obsolete), OSax. fręmithi, Du. vreemd. A derivative of the stem appearing in the Goth. prep. fram, ‘far from,’ AS. and E. from, OHG. fram, adv., ‘away, forward.’

fressen, vb., ‘to eat greedily, devour, corrode,’ from MidHG. vrëȥȥen, OHG. frëȥȥen, ‘to eat up, consume, feed,’ of men and ani-