fry

Fry, to cook in fat, is from French and Latin; fry, young fish, is a separate word.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɹaɪ/^[3]

fry¹ cook in fat

Etymology

Fry, to cook in hot fat, is inherited from Middle English frien, borrowed from Old French frire (“to fry”),^[4][2][5] from Latin frīgō (“to roast or fry”),^[4][2] cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “to roast”) and Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjáti, “he roasts”).^[2][5][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to cook, bake”);^[4] Barnhart sees several related variant roots that cannot be one.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cook something in a shallow pan over a fire: the late 13th century in Etymonline, about 1300 in Barnhart;^[4][2] the 13th century in Merriam-Webster.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense, to be cooked in fat, is from the late 14th century.^[4] The noun, excessive heat, is from 1634, and fried food from 1639.^[2] Out of the frying pan into the fire was used by Sir Thomas More in the mid-16th century.^[1] The slang sense, to be executed in the electric chair, is chiefly American,^[7][8] and to destroy electronic circuits with excessive heat or current is recent.^[8]

Timeline

• late 13th century – to fry.^[4]
• late 14th century – to be fried.^[4]
• 1639 – a fry, fried food.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To cook or be cooked in hot oil or fat over direct heat.
2. (slang, chiefly US) To be executed in the electric chair.
3. To destroy electronic circuits with too much heat or current.

Noun

1. A dish of fried food; a French fry, usually in the plural.
2. A social gathering where fried food is eaten: a fish fry.

Word family

• fryer
• fried
• fritter
• frying pan

fry² young fish

Etymology

Fry, young fish, is probably inherited from Middle English fry, borrowed from Anglo-Norman frei, from frai (“spawn”), from froier (“to rub, spawn”), from fish rubbing their bellies on the sand (see fray),^[2][4][5] from Vulgar Latin *frictiō.^[4] Some trace the word, or its use for human offspring, to Old Norse frjó (“seed, offspring”);^[4][1][9] Hoad calls it of unknown origin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Young fish: 1293 in Barnhart, the early 14th century in Etymonline (the late 13th century in Anglo-Latin).^[2][4] The OED's first quotation, for offspring or progeny, is from about 1375.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Children or offspring is first found in Scottish before 1400.^[2][4] By 1577 it was applied to the young of other creatures produced in great numbers, such as bees,^[2][10] and young or insignificant people as a group, as in small fry, from before 1577.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1293 – fry, young fish.^[2]
• before 1400 – children (Scots).^[2]
• before 1577 – insignificant people.^[2][10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Very young fish, especially newly hatched.
2. Small fry: young or unimportant people or things.

Related words

• fray
• friction

References

1. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press