freshen

Etymology

It is formed from English fresh + -en.^[2][3][4][5] Before it, the adjective itself served as the verb, from the mid-14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give new strength or energy to a person or their spirits; to revive: 1532, in R. Whittington's translation of Erasmus's De Civilitate Morum, in the OED's 2021 revision.^[2] Etymonline, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford begin with the wind's growing brisker, in the late 17th century (1697 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged).^[3][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Most of the senses grew from the adjective's meanings "invigorating", "not salt" and "new": the wind was said to freshen from 1669, and water or food to be freshened, or cleared of salt, from about 1684.^[2] From the late 17th and early 18th century the verb meant to brighten or take on a new look, and to renew or make cleaner or more attractive, now mostly in freshen up.^[2] Johnson (1755) gives both "to make fresh", quoting Thomson's Spring on "the freshen'd world", and "to grow fresh", with "a freshening breeze".^[7] Sailors used it from 1765 for shifting a rope or cable slightly so that a fresh part takes the wear, and had phrases such as freshen the hawse and freshen the nip.^[2] American farm use, of a cow coming into milk, is recorded from 1894,^[2][8] and the sense "to top up a drink" from 1930 in the OED and 1961 in Etymonline.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1532 – to revive or reinvigorate a person or their spirits.^[2]
• 1669 – of the wind, to grow stronger.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1690s.^[3]
• c. 1684 – to remove the salt from water or food.^[2]
• 1694 – to take on a fresh look; to brighten (now rare).^[2]
• 1710 – to renew or make cleaner or more attractive.^[2] Etymonline dates the transitive sense to 1749.^[3]
• 1745 – to fill a place with fresh air.^[2]
• 1765 – nautical, to shift a rope so that another part takes the wear.^[2]
• 1894 – chiefly American, of a cow, to come into milk.^[2]
• 1930 – to top up a drink.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1961.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make or become fresh or fresher; to renew, brighten or make cleaner: A coat of paint freshened the old kitchen.^[9][6][2]
2. freshen up: to wash and tidy oneself; to refresh oneself: He went upstairs to freshen up before the guests arrived.^[9][2]
3. Of the wind, to grow stronger.^[9][6][2]
4. To lose saltiness, or to remove the salt from something.^[9][6][2]
5. To fill a place with fresh air; to make the air fresher.^[2]
6. To add more liquid to a drink; to top up: The host freshened their glasses of wine.^[2][3]
7. (chiefly US) Of a cow, to give birth, or to begin giving milk after calving.^[9][2][8]
8. (nautical) To shift a rope or cable slightly so that a different part takes the chafing.^[2]

Word family

• freshener
• refreshen

Related words

• fresh
• refresh

Usage notes

In Yorkshire dialect freshen could mean to improve or recover, and in Lancashire freshen up meant to flare up in anger; in west Yorkshire and Derbyshire it was said of a cow whose udder swells before calving.^[10] In the United States the calving sense is widespread, and freshening (up) of the wind is used chiefly along the eastern coast.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ 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)