| 释义 |
freit Sc.|friːt|
Forms: 5–6 frete, 6–9 freet, 7 freite, 8 fret, 7– freit.
[a. ON. frétt fem., news, inquiry, augury, corresponding to OE. freht (for *freoht, friht), oracle (whence frihtere diviner, frihtrian to divine), from the root of frayne.]
Anything to which superstition attaches; an omen; a superstitious formula or charm; a superstitious observance or act of worship.
a1300Cursor M. 28310, I..folud wiche-crafte and frete, and charmyng. c1425Wyntoun Cron. vi. xviii. 362 Makbeth aye In fantown Fretis had gret Fay. 1533Bellenden Livy i. (1822) 42 The Albanis hallowit thair fretis, and terribill conjuraciouns. 1597Jas. I. Daemonol. i. iv. 11 All kinde of practicques, freites, or other like extraordinarie actiones. 17..Adam o' Gordon xxvii, in Pinkerton Select. Sc. Ballads (1783) I. 49 Wha luik to freits, my master deir, Freits will ay follow them. 1768Song in Ross' Helenore (1789) 147 Fouk need not on frets to be standing That's woo'd and married and a'. 1868G. Macdonald R. Falconer III. 70, ‘I dream aboot him whiles sae lifelike, that I canna believe him deid. But that's a' freits.’
Hence ˈfreity a., superstitious.
1788J. Macaulay Poems (1790) 122, I..saw a blade fast sticking to my hose, An', being freety, stack it up my nose. 1818Edin. Mag. Sept. 154 Deeply imbued with the superstitious and freitty observances of his native land. |