frisk

Etymology

The verb comes from an obsolete adjective,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} inherited from Middle English frisk (“lively, spirited”),^[7][3] borrowed from Old French frisque (“lively, brisk; fresh, new; merry”).^[2][4][8] The further origin of the French adjective is uncertain.^[2][5] Many dictionaries take it as Germanic, comparing Old High German frisc (“fresh, lively”),^{[7][4][9][6][10][11]} which continues Proto-Germanic *friskaz^[12] and is related to fresh;^[13][3] Klein and Etymonline name Middle Dutch vrisch (“fresh”),^[13][4] and Barnhart allows only that the source was possibly Germanic.^[3] The other view makes it an altered form of frique,^[2][8] which Dictionary.com relates to vrec and Old High German freh (“avaricious”), and compares German frech (“insolent”).^[14] Hoad calls it of unknown origin,^[5] and Johnson derived the verb from Italian frizzare.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, full of spirit, lively: about 1450, in a poem that speaks of "the fryskyst horse".^[7][3] The OED's first quotation of the adjective is of 1528.^[2] The verb, to dance or frolic, is recorded from 1519 in Rastell's Four Elements.^[3][6][16]

Semantic evolution

The first uses of the verb are of lively movement, dancing and capering,^[2][4] and the noun began in 1525 as a term for a horse's caracole or a dancer's caper, in Lord Berners's translation of Froissart.^[2][8] Green's dictionary reads Rastell's "I can fryske it freshly" and much later bawdy verse as sexual, and also has a noun for sexual intercourse from 1629.^[16] Johnson (1755) gave "to leap; to skip" and, for the noun, "a frolick; a fit of wanton gaiety".^[15] The search sense began in thieves' slang:^[2][16] Green's dictionary traces it through the form fisk, used by Defoe in 1724, and explains it as the hands or schemes "frisking" over the victim.^[16] Grose (1796) defined friz or frisk as searching a person whom thieves have robbed,^[16] and Collins still lists robbing by such a search.^[10] The noun for a search appears at the same date as the verb and is now chiefly American.^[2][16] In dialect, a frisk was a dance in Scotland, and a fine mist or gentle rain in west Somerset.^[17] In the slang of the 1820s the verb could also mean to hoax.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – adjective, lively (obsolete).^[7][3] The OED's quotations run from 1528 to 1611.^[2]
• 1519 – verb, to dance, frolic.^[3][6]
• 1525 – noun, a caracole or caper.^[2][6][3]
• 1665 – transitive, to move something in a lively way; noun, a brisk playful movement.^[2]
• before 1700 – to frisk away, to squander on whims.^[2]
• 1724 – the thieves' form fisk, to search.^[16]
• 1781 – to search a person, as frisk.^[16][4] The OED's first quotation is of 1789, from the same author, George Parker.^[2]
• 1789 – noun, a search.^[2][16]
• 1825 – slang, to hoax.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To leap, skip or move about playfully; to frolic, gambol: Lambs frisked along the fence.^[10][6][2]
2. To wave or move something briskly: The spaniel frisked its stumpy tail.^[10][6][8]
3. To search a person by running the hands quickly over the clothing, looking for a weapon or stolen goods; also to search a place.^[10][6][2]
4. (slang) To rob someone by searching them in this way.^[10]

Noun

1. A playful movement or antic; a frolic.^[10][6][2]
2. An act of searching a person by frisking.^[10][6][2]
3. A lively, enjoyable time; a diversion.^[6][16]
4. (archaic) A caracole, caper or jig.^[6][2]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1528–1611) Full of life; brisk, lively.^[2][8][7]

Word family

• frisker
• friskingly
• frisky

Related words

• fresh

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e 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)
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ 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)