frain
/ˈfɹeɪn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.64 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A surname from Old French.
Example Sentences
- "Ones yet agayne Of you I wolde frayne, Why come ye nat to court ?"
- "Theyr myndes disdayne: Gods actes to frain …"
- "And so answerd ever when so the said Umphra frayned the said Thomas; and otherwaies this examinate never hard the said Thomas speak anything of himself to any bodye, duringe the spaic of an hower or more, that this examinate was with the said Thomas."
- "I, musing, frain'd her meaning: she / Her meaning thus did tell."
- "Nor far had spurr'd the warrior, ere a crew Of hinds and sun-burnt woodmen met his view, Frayn'd by the knight, they told, a beauteous maid, Who, loudly shrieking, call'd on heav'n for aid, [...]"
- "But Jesus stood before the count; yea the count frayned him, quothing, thou is king of the Jews? but Jesus quoth to him, thou quoths."
Etymology
From Middle English fraynen, freinen (“to ask”), from Old English freġnan, friġnan (“to ask, inquire, learn”), from Proto-West Germanic *fregnan, from Proto-Germanic *frehnaną (“to ask”), from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask, woo”). Cognates Cognate with Icelandic fregna (“to ask, inquire”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌽 (fraihnan, “to ask”). Related also to Dutch vragen (“to ask”), German fragen (“to ask”), Norwegian frega (“to ask”), Latin precor (“ask, beseech”), Sanskrit पृच्छति (pṛccháti, “to ask”), Lithuanian prašyti (“to request”), Polish prosić (“to request”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: fraynen, freġnan, *fregnan, *frehnaną, *preḱ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfɹeɪn/
Usage
Inflected Forms
frains (present, singular)
fraining (participle, present)
frained (participle, past)
frained (past)
frein (alternative)
frane (alternative)
fraine (alternative, obsolete)
frayn (alternative, obsolete)
frayne (alternative, obsolete)
freyne (alternative, obsolete)