freo

• freu

From Old Galician-Portuguese frẽo (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin frēnum. Cognate with Portuguese freio, Spanish freno and French frein.

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɾe.ʊ], [ˈfɾeʊ̯]

freo m (plural freos)

1. brake

   Synonyms: entrabe, trabán

2. bridle

   Synonym: brida

   • 1455, X. Ferro Couselo, editor, A vida e a fala dos devanceiros, Vigo: Galaxia, page 316:

     Iten, que furtara a faqa a Pero Gayo da sua casa, que está á par da vila de Ribadauia, da casa que está á par da ponte, et que lla furtara con a sella e con o freo et que fora despois por ela preso ena Cruña

     Item, that he stole the mare of Pedro Gaio, from his house that is close to the town of Ribadavia, by the bridge; and that he stole her with saddle and bridle, and that later he was captured because of her in A Coruña

3. bit of the bridle
4. strait, passage

• enfrear
• frear
• refrear

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “freo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “freo”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “freo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “freo”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “freo”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

• freob

• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /fˠɾˠoːbˠ/^[1] (as if spelled frób)

freo (emphatic freosan)

1. third-person plural of fré

From Proto-West Germanic *friu, a byform of *frī. The transmission of this word was complex. The Proto-Germanic form must have been *frijwaz. After loss of final *-az and syllabification of *-w, the resulting West-Germanic form was *friju, which developed further to *frīju after gemination and vocalization of *j between *i and another *j. The sequence *iju, *īju then contracts to *iu, yielding a final form *friu (cf. Proto-West Germanic *friund, from *frijōndz), which develops normally to Old English frīo, frēo. The oblique forms should however have retained *-j- in all instances in which it was not followed by *u, yielding an alternation between frīo and frīġ- throughout the paradigm. This alternation, though sparsely attested in the Old English corpus, was too irregular to have been maintained for long and was eventually levelled away in all dialects in favor either of the diphthongal nominative or the oblique forms in -ġ-. Note also that *w was deleted between *īj and any front vowel, thus explaining its absence in certain oblique forms such as frīġes, from earlier /ˈfriːj.wæs/. See Hogg 1992 sections 3.17, 3.19(3), 4.7, and 4.9(1) for details.

• frīo, freoh, frioh, friġ, frī, frȳ

• IPA^(key): /fre͜oː/

frēo

1. free, at liberty; exempt
   • c. 890, Alfred the Great, Laws

     Beo he freo

     he shall be free.

2. (poetic) noble, glad
   • c. 700 Cædmon, Metrical Paraphrase

     Ða wearþ worn afeded freora bearna

     then a number of noble children were brought forth.

• The stem frēo- contracted with any endings beginning with a vowel, leaving many forms being simply frēo: King Alfred, Pastoral Care (transl. of Gregory the Great): Ac forðæm ðe hi her syngiað, & hit him no ne hreowð, hi gehrinð her sumu wracu ær ðæm ecum witum ðæt hi ne sien freo ne orsorge on ðæm anbide ðæs maran wites.—note that orsorge (orsorh) has the ending -e, as compared to frēo.

• frēolīċ
• frēolīċe

• frēond
• frēoġan
• friþ
• frīġ

• Middle English: fre, vri, vry
  • English: free
    • → Fiji Hindi: firii
  • Scots: fre

frēo m

1. a free man, man

Uncertain; possible etymologies include:

• From Proto-West Germanic *frauwjā, from Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ, a feminine form of *frawjô (“lord”) (Old English frēa), from Proto-Indo-European *proHwo-, a derivation from *per- (“to go forward”). Cognate with Old Saxon frūa, Old High German frouwa (German Frau), Old Norse freyja. The Indo-European root is also the source of Proto-Slavic *prāvъ (Old Church Slavonic правъ (pravŭ), Russian пра́вый (právyj, “right”)), and the first element of Latin provincia.
• From Proto-Germanic *frijō, of the same root as etymology 1 above and related to the verb that yielded Old English frēoġan (“to liberate; to love”).

frēo f (Northumbrian)

1. a woman
   • c. 700, Cædmon, Metrical Paraphrase:

     oþ-ðæt hē funde frēo fæġroste

     until he found the fairest woman

• frēa
• frōwe