Etymograph

English

freck

Freck comes from Proto-Germanic *sprekalą ‘freckle’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g- ‘to sprinkle, strew’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sp(h)er(e)g-‘to sprinkle, strew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sprekalą‘freckle’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350freknur
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fracle
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1626freck

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sp(h)er(e)g-‘to sprinkle, strew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sprekalą‘freckle’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350freknur
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fracle
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1626freck

Earliest quotation: 1626, Ovid, The Second Booke: “There ſhee a bloodleſſe Statue ſate, all freckt; /…”

The story

The noun is a clipping of freckle (noun). Freckle is derived from frecken (‘(obsolete except UK, dialectal) freckle’)), from Late Middle English fracle, frekel, frekle (‘freckle; pimple; fleck of colour in a stone’), a variant of frakne, freken (‘freckle; other skin blemish’) from Old Norse freknur pl, an s-less variant of Proto-Germanic *sprekalą (‘freckle’), from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g-, *(s)pregʰ- (‘to sprinkle, strew’).

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g-

Today it means

noun Synonym of freckle (“a small brownish or reddish pigmentation spot on the surface of the skin; any small spot which has a different colour from its background”).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g- / freck

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