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frain

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frain¹

Rhymes with -eɪn

Where it comes from

From Middle English fraynen, freinen (“to ask”), from Old English freġnan, friġnan (“to ask, inquire, learn”), from Proto-West Germanic *fregnan, from Proto-Germanic *frehnaną (“to ask”), from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask, woo”).

Cognates

Cognate with Icelandic fregna (“to ask, inquire”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌽 (fraihnan, “to ask”). Related also to Dutch vragen (“to ask”), German fragen (“to ask”), Norwegian frega (“to ask”), Latin precor (“ask, beseech”), Sanskrit पृच्छति (pṛccháti, “to ask”), Lithuanian prašyti (“to request”), Polish prosić (“to request”).

verb frains · fraining · frained · frein · frane

  1. dialectal, obsolete, transitive To ask, inquire. Ones yet agayne Of you I wolde frayne, Why come ye nat to court ?

Frain²

  • /ˈfɹeɪn/ US

Where it comes from

From Old French fraisne.

proper noun

  1. A surname from Old French.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"frain." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/frain. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

frain. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/frain

Chicago

"frain." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/frain.

BibTeX
@misc{frain_2026,
  title = {frain},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/frain},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}