fretum

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin fretum (“strait, channel”). Doublet of fret (“strait; channel”).

Noun

fretum (plural freta)

1. A strait; a channel.

   Synonym: fret

Latin

Etymology

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to brew, boil”) with the suffix *-eto-, but the zero-grade is inexplicable. In this case related to ferveō, fretāle and dēfrutum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfre.tum/, [ˈfrɛt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfre.tum/, [ˈfrɛːt̪um]

Noun

fretum n (genitive fretī); second declension

1. strait, sound, estuary, channel.
   • Marcus Tullius Cicero, Against Vatinius Ch. 5:

     Venerisne ad fretum per Mauretaniam?

     Did you come to the strait via Mauritania?

   1. the strait of Sicily
   2. Sicily
      • c. 48 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Civili 1.29:

        Relinquebatur, ut ex longuinquioribus regionibus Galliae Picenique et a freto naves essent expectandae.

        All that was left him was to wait for the arrival of ships from the remoter areas of Gaul and Picenum, and from Sicily.

2. the seas.
   • Publius Vergilius Maro, Eclogues 1:

     Et freta destituent nūdōs in lītore piscēs.

     And the seas shall leave their fish bare on the shore.

3. turmoil

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	fretum	freta
genitive	fretī	fretōrum
dative	fretō	fretīs
accusative	fretum	freta
ablative	fretō	fretīs
vocative	fretum	freta

Derived terms

• fretēnsis

Further reading

• “fretum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fretum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fretum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• fretum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.