Where does “fretful” come from?
I need to work through this etymology chain carefully.
The chain given is:
English fret ← Latin fretum ← Proto-Indo-European bʰer- ← Old French -er ← Latin -are ← Latin -are ← Latin -arius ← Proto-Indo-European bʰreg-
Wait, this chain seems problematic. Let me parse it:
- English "fret" comes from Latin "fretum"
- Latin "fretum" comes from Proto-Indo-European "bʰer-"
- Then there are Old French and Latin suffixes listed
But the headword is "fretful" (not "fret"), and I'm told to follow the chain as given, naming every language in order with original spellings.
However, the chain as presented doesn't make coherent sense for deriving "fretful" - it appears to mix
fretful (English): Irritable, bad-tempered, grumpy or peevish;...
Definitions
- Irritable, bad-tempered, grumpy or peevish;...
Ancestry of “fretful”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | FRET | Förster resonance energy transfer; fluorescence... |
| 2 | Middle English | frēten | to eat; to devour, eat up; to bite, chew; to... |
| 3 | Old French | freter | to fret |
| 4 | Old French | fret | charge; past participle of fraindre |
| 5 | Middle Dutch | vrecht | Alternative form of vracht; cost of transport |
| 6 | Old Dutch | frēht | — |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | fra- | off, away; completely, fully, up |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | pro- | toward, forward |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | por- | to give birth; forward, through; going, passage |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | per- | before, in front; first; to go through |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | pr̥tós | passed , crossed |
Words derived from “fretful”