Dictionary

frain en · VERB

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”).

Meanings

1. (dialectal, obsolete, transitive) To ask, inquire.
   • Theyr myndes disdayne: Gods actes to frain … 1555, Henry Parker, The Exposition and Declaration of the Psalme Deus ultionum dominus, XXVIII.
   • 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, [...] 1803, William Stuart Rose, transl., Amadis de Gaula, A Poem in Three Books, page 160:
   • I, musing, frain'd her meaning: she / Her meaning thus did tell. 1592, William Warner, Albion's England. Book VII:
   • 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. 1807, Samuel Henshall, translating "The Durham Book" (c. 900); The Gothic Gospel of Saint Matthew
   • 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. c. 1574, William Strothers (clerk), Deposition of Thomas Hunter, in "The Will of Humphrey Hopper", in Depositions and Other Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts of Durham: Extending from 1311 to the Reign of Elizabeth
   • Ones yet agayne Of you I wolde frayne, Why come ye nat to court ? 1522, John Skelton, Why come ye nat to Courte:

Forms

Deriveds

fraining