affray
/əˈfɹeɪ/ verb, noun
Forms affrays affraying affrayed afray
- verb (archaic, transitive) To startle from quiet; to alarm.
- verb (archaic, transitive) To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
- noun The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
- noun A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
- noun The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others. “The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder.”
- noun (obsolete) Terror.
Synonyms
fray brawl alarm terror fright altercation fracas disturbance ruffle
Etymology
From Middle English affraien (“to terrify, frighten”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman afrayer (“to terrify, disquiet, disturb”) and Old French effreer, esfreer (“to disturb, remove the peace from”) (compare modern French effrayer), from Vulgar Latin *exfridāre.
The second part of this is in turn from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). Cognate with Old High German fridu (“peace”), Old English friþ (“peace, frith”), Old English frēod (“peace, friendship”), German Friede (“peace”). More at free, friend.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To startle from quiet; to alarm.
- verb To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
- noun The act of suddenly disturbing any one; an assault or attack.
- noun Alarm; terror; fright. [Obs.] Spenser.
Etymology [OE. afraien, affraien, OF. effreer, esfreer, F. effrayer, orig. to disquiet, put out of peace, fr. L. ex + OHG. fridu peace (akin to E. free). Cf. Afraid, Fray, Frith inclosure.]
Etymology [OE. afrai, affrai, OF. esfrei, F. effroi, fr. OF. esfreer. See Affray, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “affray”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details