Dictionary

fremd en · ADJ · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• frĕmd (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /fɹɛmd/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English fremde, fremede (“strange, foreign”), from Old English fremde, fremede, fremeþe (“foreign, strange”), from Proto-West Germanic *framiþī, from Proto-Germanic *framaþiz (“foreign, not one's own”). Cognate with Scots fremmit, frempt (“fremd”), West Frisian frjemd (“strange, fremd”), Dutch vreemd (“strange, foreign”), German fremd (“fremd, strange, foreign”), Swedish främmande (“foreign, outlandish, strange”). More at from.

Meanings

1. (dialectal, rare) Strange, unusual, out of the ordinary; unfamiliar.
   • a fremd day
   • Something fremd has been going on here.
   • Pits it i' da fremd-man's hert. 1892, Haldane Burgess, Rasmie's Büddie, section 43:
   • A fremd man this.
2. (dialectal, rare) Not kin, unrelated; foreign.
   • [...] and if I'm to be no more hereafter to them that belong to me, than to legions of strange angels, or a whole nation of fremd folk! 1873, Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine:
   • There's room for everybody in the world, I suppose, and something for everybody to do, and it behoves them that have few kin to make the more friends of fremd folk. 1873, Heathergate, Heathergate, page 66:
   • Thus, a person living with a family to whom he is not related is termed "a fremd body." If it were asked, "Is he akin to you?" the answer would be, "Nawe, he's fremd," i.e. "he's one of us, but not a relation." 1875, John Howard Nodal, George Milner, A glossary of the Lancashire dialect:
   • [...] seeing that they were fremd in heart, if they were kin in blood. 1851, Mrs. Oliphant (Margaret), Passages in the life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside:
   • The doctor went up to the bed, and said, firmly, " Miss Garnock, you must not keep Mr. Yonge any longer." "Who'll he be that comes meddling between me and my Tar?" shrieked the patient. "Mither, bid yon fremd body gang his ways. I'll no be fashed wi' him the day." 1868, Legh Knight, Tonic Bitters: A Novel, page 181:
3. (obsolete) Wild; untamed.

Forms

Deriveds

fremdling · fremedly · fremsome · fremman

fremd en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• frĕmd (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /fɹɛmd/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English fremde, fremede (“strange, foreign”), from Old English fremde, fremede, fremeþe (“foreign, strange”), from Proto-West Germanic *framiþī, from Proto-Germanic *framaþiz (“foreign, not one's own”). Cognate with Scots fremmit, frempt (“fremd”), West Frisian frjemd (“strange, fremd”), Dutch vreemd (“strange, foreign”), German fremd (“fremd, strange, foreign”), Swedish främmande (“foreign, outlandish, strange”). More at from.

Meanings

1. (dialectal, rare) A stranger; someone who is not a relative; a guest.
2. (archaic, obsolete) An enmity.

Forms

fremd en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• frĕmd (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /fɹɛmd/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Meanings

1. (Internet, childish) Humorous alteration of "friend".

Forms