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fray

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English has two main words spelled fray: one for a brawl, shortened from affray, and one for wearing by rubbing, from Latin through French.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

fray1 brawl, fight

Etymology

The word for a brawl is inherited from Middle English frai,[5][2][6] a shortening of affray,[7][8][9][2][10][11] and the verb meaning to frighten is fraien, shortened from afraien or affraien.[12][3][6] The Shorter Oxford derives the noun from that verb.[13] The longer word comes from Anglo-Norman affrai and afraier, formed with a change of prefix from Old French esfrei (“disturbance, fright”) and esfreer (“to disturb, frighten”).[7][10][2][6] Barnhart and Etymonline trace the Old French verb to Vulgar Latin *exfridō (“to take out of peace”),[9][8] formed from ex- (“out of”) and Frankish *fridu (“peace”),[9][6] which is related to Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”).[10][14][15] The same French verb is behind afraid.[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A feeling of alarm: mid-14th century in Etymonline,[8] and in the OED from 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.[7] Barnhart dates the noun, a noisy quarrel or fight, to about 1350,[16][9] and the Middle English Dictionary has þis worldus fray in a northern homily collection of about 1350.[5]

Semantic evolution

The first senses of the noun were fright and an assault or attack (about 1430 to 1575);[7][13] the sense of a disturbance, noisy quarrel or fight is recorded from about 1420,[7] and Etymonline finds it in Anglo-Latin from the late 14th century.[8] From 1702 it was used of a war of words,[7] and the word came to cover any struggle or dispute, literal or figurative.[13][3] The sense "fright" became obsolete except in Scotland,[7][12] where Wright recorded it, with a verb to fray, to frighten, in Scotland, Northumberland and Yorkshire around 1900.[17] The verb, to frighten (before 1400), to scare away (1526) and to quarrel or fight (1465), survives only in poetry and archaic style.[7][13][12] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a broil; a battle; a fight".[18] He traced it to French effrayer.[18] Etymonline notes fraymaker, a brawler, in a statute of the 1530s.[8]

Timeline

  • mid-14th century – a feeling of alarm.[8] Barnhart dates the noun, a fight, to about 1350.[9]
  • 1398 – fear, alarm, fright.[7]
  • before 1400 – verb, to frighten.[7]
  • c. 1420 – a disturbance or noisy quarrel; a brawl or fight.[7][8]
  • c. 1430 – an assault, an attack (obsolete by 1575).[7]
  • 1465 – verb, to quarrel or fight.[7]
  • 1526 – verb, to frighten away.[7]
  • 1702 – a war of words.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A noisy quarrel or fight; a brawl: Two of the guests were thrown out after a fray in the bar.[11][12][7]
  2. A heated contest or dispute, especially one that someone joins: Another candidate has entered the fray.[3][13][7]
  3. (archaic) Fright or alarm; now chiefly Scottish.[11][12][7]
  4. (obsolete, c. 1430–1575) An assault or attack.[7][13]

Verb

  1. (archaic) To frighten; to scare away.[11][12][3][7]
  2. (archaic) To quarrel or fight.[12][13][7]

fray2 wear by rubbing, unravel

Etymology

The verb meaning to rub or wear is inherited from Middle English fraien (“to wear, bruise, crush”),[5][2] borrowed from Old French freier (“to rub”), also fraiier and froiier,[5][8][3][13] from Latin fricō (“to rub, rub down”).[7][8][2][9][6][10] In Anglo-Norman freier, recorded from the early 12th century, meant to rub, to wipe and to brush against.[19] Barnhart, the OED and Merriam-Webster name the later form French frayer as the source.[9][7][12] The Latin verb is also the source of friction.[8][9][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To wear, crush or bruise: about 1405, in Mum and the Sothsegger.[5][9] Etymonline dates the sense "to wear off by rubbing" to about 1400,[8] and Barnhart the sense "to rub" to 1410.[9] Hoad finds the verbal noun fraying, the noise of friction, already in the 14th century.[10]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to wear, bruise or crush, and of weapons to clash.[5] From 1575, in Gascoigne's book on hunting, it was used of deer rubbing their heads against trees to strip the velvet from new horns,[7][1] a sense Wright still recorded as a hunting term in Somerset and Devon.[17] The modern sense, to wear through by rubbing and to ravel out the edge of cloth or rope, is recorded from 1710 in Steele's Tatler,[7] and the intransitive "to become frayed" from 1721.[7][8] Figurative use of strained nerves and tempers followed.[13][3] Senses that died out were "to bruise" (about 1460 to 1567) and "to clash, collide" (1483 to 1500).[7][10] The noun, a frayed place, is recorded from before 1627, in Middleton;[7] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s and Merriam-Webster to 1630.[8][12] In the 19th century the verb was borrowed again from French in the sense "to clear a path".[7] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins thinks frazzle is probably linked with this verb.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1405 – to wear, crush, bruise.[5][9] Etymonline dates the verb to about 1400.[8]
  • 1410 – to rub, wear off.[9]
  • c. 1460 – to bruise (obsolete by 1567).[7]
  • 1483 – to clash, collide (obsolete by 1500).[7]
  • 1575 – of deer, to rub the head against trees.[7]
  • before 1627 – noun, a frayed place.[7]
  • 1710 – to wear through by rubbing; to ravel out the edge of cloth.[7]
  • 1721 – intransitive, to become frayed.[7][8]
  • 1849 – to clear or force a path.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wear the edge of cloth or the end of a rope by rubbing, so that the threads come loose; of material, to unravel in this way: The cuffs of his old coat had begun to fray.[3][12][7][13]
  2. To strain or irritate, as nerves or tempers: Hours of waiting frayed everyone's patience.[3][13]
  3. Of a deer, to rub the antlers against trees to remove the velvet.[12][7][13]
  4. To rub against something.[12][7]

Noun

  1. A worn or raveled place, as on fabric.[3][12][7]

Word family

  • fraying
  • unfrayed

References

  1. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  6. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  15. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  16. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  18. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  19. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)