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fraught: msg#00009

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Subject: fraught

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The Word of the Day for July 10 is:

fraught \FRAWT\ adjective
*1 : full of or accompanied by something specified -- used with with
2 : causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension : uneasy

Example sentence:
The doctor warned her patient that the experimental procedure was fraught
with problems.

Did you know?
"The drowmound was so hevy fraught / That unethe myght it saylen aught."
That verse, written in the 14th-century poem "Richard Coer de Lion," says that
a large ship (a dromond) was so heavily loaded that it could barely sail.
That's the first instance we have on record of the adjective "fraught." The
word came to Middle English from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German noun
"vracht," which meant "load" and which is also the source of the word
"freight." Middle English also possessed a noun "fraught" that meant "load" and
a verb "fraughten" that meant "to load" (meanings still retained in Scottish
English by "fraught," the verb and noun). For centuries, "fraught" continued to
be used only of loaded ships, but its use was eventually broadened.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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