English
frieze
Frieze comes from Middle French frise.
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600frise
- Englishearliest quotation 1608frieze
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600frise
- Englishearliest quotation 1608frieze
Earliest quotation: 1608, Thomas Dekker, Of Barnards Law: “[I]f a plaine fellow well and cleanely apparelled, either…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *prews- ‘to freeze’
frozen, frost, freeze, pruritus, prurient, 7 more
through Proto-Germanic *frisaz ‘curly, frizzy’
Another origin of frieze
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCE*yeh₃s-uncertain
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEζώννυμι‘to gird’uncertain
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEζῶμᾰ‘woman's girdle’uncertain
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEπερίζωμα‘girdle’uncertain
- Aramaicc. 1000 BCE–700 CEאַפְרִיזָאʾap̄rīzāuncertain
- Arabicc. 500–presentإِفْرِيزʔifrīz‘king beam, cornice’uncertain
- Italianc. 1300–presentfris
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600frise
- Englishtodayfrieze
From French and Middle French frise f, derived from an Upper Italian fris f, Medieval Latin frisum, frisium, frigium, frixum, frigium, of controversial origin, possibly from multiple sources, Arabic إِفْرِيز (ʔifrīz, “king beam, cornice”) and Latin opus Phrygium (“a kind of embroidery”, literally “work of Phrygia”), the demonym Frisian and terms related to the textile term above in a transferred sense.
Today it means
noun A kind of coarse woollen cloth or stuff with a shaggy or tufted (friezed) nap on one side.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle French frise / frieze