May 05, 2006, 07:52
shufitzThought on 'fraught'
I always thought
fraught meant 'filled (with something negative)', as in 'fraught with danger' or 'fraught with peril'. (Come to think of it, those are the only phrases in which I've seen the word.)
But now I find
fraught without the
with after it. From the paper: "
Ambassador John Bolton has been hacking a path toward United Nations reform - an effort about as fraugt as [simile follows]. I see by the dictionary that
fraught can also mean 'marked by or causing distress', without the 'with'.
Is that an unfamiliar usage to others, as it is to me?
May 05, 2006, 09:51
zmježdI had not heard this usage before. Looked into the etymology of
fraught, and it is interesting. From the Dutch
vracht 'cargo of ship'. This is the primary meaning given in the OED1, but it seems now to be obsolete. The secondary meaning with with is given, but not the other one. This word is related to English
freight and French
fret. Makes sense to say that something is filled, or laden, with danger, but I wonder if the similarity in form to
fright added to this?
quote:
I wonder if the similarity in form to fright added to this?
Maybe, zmj.
Fraught sounds like an irregular past participle (like
taught). A variation on
frightened, perhaps?
May 06, 2006, 14:48
tinman Fraught, the past participle of the obsolete verb,
fraught (OED Online), can also mean "distressed, distressing".
Here are entries from the
AHD and the
Online Etymology Dictionary.
Tinman
May 06, 2006, 16:20
<Asa Lovejoy>Tinman, you're good!
So it's possible to fret over frought freight?