Here's something that's been bothering me lately. (I don't have enough real trouble.) What is the root of the past participle "fraught," as in "fraught with menace"? On the analogy of "thought" and "taught," I get frink or freach, which lacked a certain something. On the analogy of "wrought," whose root I imagined to be either work or wreak, I get fork or freak. Freak seems to hold real promise: when you're freaking out, you're fraught. Somehow the word "free" seems to be involved, as well, which is how you get the contrast between "barrier-free" and "barrier-fraught" architecture, but as far as I can tell no one thinks there's a true etymological link between free and fraught.
Today I finally tried to look it up. Most sources claim the root is the same as the participle, "fraught," but they admit that nobody says "to fraught" and that, if they did, its archaic meaning would be close to what we now suggest with the word "freight." I can accept freight. A situation is metaphorically freighted with some quality just as it can be fraught with that quality. So I'm glad we cleared that up.
The experts claim, by the way, that the proper past participle of wreak is "wreaked," while "wrought" goes only with "work." Well, I don't know. I always thought you wrought havoc.
14 comments:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the answer is that the word derives from a Germanic term relating to a boat being heavily laden. Thus, 'fraught with meaning' is an analogue to 'heavily laden with meaning.'
It appears to come to us from the middle and old English, and be related to vrachten in the Middle Dutch, frachten in the German (confer with the modern English "freight"), fragte in the Danish, and frakta in the Swedish.
So I guess the closest English term is "freighted." Your guess of "freach" wasn't far off.
By the way, the OED entry for "wreak" is very impressive. That is a word with some significant history.
...wrought" goes only with "work." Well, I don't know. I always thought you wrought havoc.
It does, though: you really have to work to wreak havoc. Even when working at doing nothing.
Eric Hines
I have a book (it's in CA in storage at the moment) called Is There A Cow In Moscow? that you would enjoy greatly. From the page: "Elster has selected 475 commonly mispronounced words, arranged them alphabetically and written an essay on how each word is spoken - and mis-spoken - on the airwaves, in the office, and on the street. The author has sifted through dictionaries and other sources, both historic and modern, in an attempt to arrive at an informed consensus on how English should be spoken." I can't remember if this particular word is in there due to the fact that it's been over a decade since I last read it. Still, I found the book both informative and humorous.
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...an informed consensus on how English should be spoken.
Leave that for the English. I'm an American. Noah Webster had it right. :p
Eric Hines
I'll have to check that out. I'll bet "err" (ur) is in there, as in "to err is human, but to 'air' is careless."
I've only heard "wreaked havoc" and never wrought havoc. Not sure if that is purely regional or just a KleinRot domestic quirk.
I'm getting ready to perform Carmina Burana and it is fascinating to see the Middle High German and compare it to the modern High German spellings and meanings. But then you get a lot of etymology and history when you learn German in college, because of the dialects and the major changes that took place in the literature over time.
LittleRed1
On DL Sly's recommendation, I downloaded one of Elster's books to Kindle and read it this afternoon. Sure enough, he objects to "wrought" for "wreaked." I suppose it's obvious you work iron rather than wreak it. When you're overwrought, though, I'm not sure what the right root would be. "Work" doesn't quite work. I daresay it should be "wreight."
If memory serves, if you overwork a piece of iron, you can ruin it if it is supposed to be of a certain temper or carbon composition. So "overwrought" - worked to the point of failure or overstressed, makes some sense.
LittleRed1
Good point -- not work in the sense of a 9-5 job where you're required to stay until 6, but in the sense of a material (clay or iron) that's worked, i.e., manipulated, stretched, modified.
So long as you don't reek havoc, we're o.k.
I always wondered about "disgruntled". Clearly it means "unhappy" or "displeased". But that would imply that it has a converse of "gruntled". But no one ever uses it. So I looked it up in OED one day. Sure enough, it was there. As a logically constructed but unused word.
I've wondered about "gruntled," too. I supposed if you're gruntled you're happy as a pig in ****.
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