• affray •
Pronunciation: ê-frey • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A fray, a noisy quarrel. 2. A brawl or fight. 3. In law, the fighting of two or more persons in a public place. (A fight in private is an assault and battery.)
Notes: Words that begin with A are always at risk of reanalysis, the misinterpretation of the initial A as the article a. Orange was originally Arabic narange but "a narange" was reanalyzed as "an orange". Apron comes from Old French naperon "small tablecloth", reanalyzed from "a napron" to "an apron". Affray, too, is being reanalyzed as "a fray" and is being replaced by fray. Why not keep the original?
In Play: The meaning of today's Good Word varies from that of an argument to that of a short fight. This is more likely a heated argument: "Our team lost the game when our high scorer, Stretch Hightower, got into a nasty affray with the referee and was sent to the showers." In this example, the implication is a physical altercation: "Brea Little intervened and very narrowly averted an affray when Al Pacca called Perry Yare a quiche-eating sissy."
Word History: Middle English, from Old French effrei, from esfraier "to disturb". It all started with PIE *pri- "to love", as in Russian prij-atel' "friend". In the Germanic languages, of course, the [p] became [f], so it turns up in English free and German Frieden "peace". An ancestor of German Frieden seems to have been borrowed into Gaulish Latin, perhaps *ex-fried-are "to remove from peacefulness", which then went on to become French esfraier. By the way, this same French word is the source of afraid, which originally meant "disturbed". (Today's Good Word comes courtesy of Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira, who haunts the Alpha Agora in the guise of The Brazilian Dude. Click here to meet him there today.)
AFFRAY
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7466
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
AFFRAY
• The Good Dr. Goodword
-
- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7466
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
Haint
Actually, where I come from, there are two haints: the auxiliary verb, "Ah hain't gone do that no matter what you say", and the kind that live in haunted houses (and, occasionally, the Agora).
• The Good Dr. Goodword
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
In Play: "When someone asked why we didn't show up earlier," said the National Guardsman by way of explaining the multiple contusions about his person, "I shouted 'Posse Comitatus.' He thought I called him some kind of a Communist. One thing led to another, and I'm afraid we just affrayed."
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
-
- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1141
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
- Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
As I told Henri (among other things) in a PM:
And some moreI found . . .
Henry Erskine: When asked if the pun is the lowest form of wit, he replied, "It is, and therefore the foundation of all wit."
And some moreI found . . .
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
-
- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1141
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
- Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 2 guests