Etymology Inherited from Middle English fryen, borrowed from Old French frire, from Latin frīgō. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “to roast, bake”), Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjati, “to roast, grill, fry”). Replaced native Middle English hirsten, from Old English hierstan (“to fry”). Related to bhurji, bhujia (“fried Indian snacks”).
With crackling flames a caldron fries.1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
Ye might haue seene the frothy billowes fry1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
› To affect or be affected by extreme heat or current.
Etymology Inherited from Middle English fryen, borrowed from Old French frire, from Latin frīgō. Cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “to roast, bake”), Sanskrit भृज्जति (bhṛjjati, “to roast, grill, fry”). Replaced native Middle English hirsten, from Old English hierstan (“to fry”). Related to bhurji, bhujia (“fried Indian snacks”).
Etymology From Middle English frie (“spawn of fish, young or small fish, offspring, progeny, children”), probably from Old Norse frjó (“seed, semen”), from Proto-Germanic *fraiwą (“seed, semen, offspring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)per-, *(s)prey- (“to strew, sow”). Cognate with Icelandic frjó (“pollen, seed”), Icelandic fræ (“seed”), Swedish frö (“seed, embryo, grain, germ”), Danish and Norwegian frø (“seed”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍅 (fraiw, “seed”). Likely merging with Old French froiz, froie (“spawn, spawning”), from froier, freier (“to spawn”), from Latin fricō (“to rub”). Compare friable.
1
Young fish; fishlings.
it is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the other frie; that must be the Angels Ministery at the end of mortall things.1644, John Milton, Areopagitica:
Keen was the frost and crisp the snow over our world; and we young fry of the King households were all agog to enjoy life—for was it not Saturday, and were we not left all alone to keep house?1913, Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Golden Road, L.C. Page & Co.:
Etymology Dialectal, of obscure origin. Perhaps related to or a corruption of frith (“a wood, forest", also "brushwood, wattle”), from Middle English fryth, frith (“forest, woodland, a fence of brush or wattle, hedge”).
Etymology Dialectal, of obscure origin. Perhaps related to or a corruption of frith (“a wood, forest", also "brushwood, wattle”), from Middle English fryth, frith (“forest, woodland, a fence of brush or wattle, hedge”).