fraynen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• frain, fraine, frainen, frayn, frayne, freinen, freyne
• fræine, fræinien, vraini (Early Middle English)
• fraȝȝnenn (Ormulum)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English fræġnian, variant of freġnan, friġnan (“to inquire, ask”), from Proto-West Germanic *fregnan, from Proto-Germanic *frehnaną; reinforced by Old Norse fregna.

Cognates:

Cognate with Middle Dutch vrāghen (“to ask”), Middle High German vrāgen (“to ask”), Old Danish fregne (“to ask”), Lithuanian prašyti (“to ask”), Polish prosić (“to ask”).

Verb

fraynen (third-person singular simple present frayneth, present participle fraynende, fraynynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle frayned)

1. To ask or inquire; to make an inquiry:
   1. To ask or make a request (for something).
      • fifteenth century, unknown author, The prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer:

        I frained fast what was his name, Where that he came, from what country.

   2. To ask or direct a question at someone:
      • c. 1370-90, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section I:

        Þanne I frained hir faire · for hym þat hir made. or Then I frayned at Faith what all that fare meant and who should joust in Jerusalem.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales:

        She fraineth and she prayeth pitously To every Jew that dwelt in thilke place To tell her if her child went ought forby.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 15th c., “Annunciacio [Annunciation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 91, lines 183–187:

        [Joseph:] Bot certys, mary, I rew full sore / It standys so with the[e] now. / Bot of a thyng frayn the[e] I shall / who owe this child thou gose with all? / Maria. Syr, ye, and god of heuen.

        Joseph: But Mary, I very much regret that circumstances are as they are with you. But one thing I will ask you: Who's child is this that you are pregnant with? / Mary: You, sir, and God of heaven.

   3. To ask or put forward (a question).
2. To look or search for something.
3. To acquire knowledge through asking.

Conjugation

Conjugation of fraynen (weak in -ed)

infinitive	(to) fraynen, frayne
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	frayne	frayned
2nd-person singular	fraynest	fraynedest
3rd-person singular	frayneth	frayned
subjunctive singular	frayne
imperative singular		—
plural1	fraynen, frayne	frayneden, fraynede
imperative plural	frayneth, frayne	—
participles	fraynynge, fraynende	frayned, yfrayned

¹Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Derived terms

• afraynen

Descendants

• English: frain
• Scots: frain, frane, frayn, frayne

References

• “frainen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.