Etymology: Common Germanic: Old English friðu , frioðu , freoðu strong masculine and feminine, frið strong neuter, = Old Frisian fretho , frede , ferd , Old Saxon frithu (masculine) (Middle Dutch vrēde , verde , Dutch vrede masculine), Old High German fridu (Middle High German vride , modern German friede ), Old Norse frið-r (Swedish, Danish fred ), Gothic *friþu-s (in combination Friþareiks = Frederick); < Old Germanic root *frî- to love: see friend n. and adj.

Etymology: Old English (ge)fyrhðe strong neuter (also fyrhð strong feminine) < Old Germanic type *(ga)furhiþjo^m (see below). In Middle English and in modern English the word seems to have been confused with others of similar sound: see the remarks under senses 1, 4.The Old Germanic type *(ga)furhiþjo^m would appear to be a collective < *furhâ fir n.; but there is no trace in English of the etymological sense ‘fir-wood’, and as firs seem to have been not very abundant in early times in this country, the development of the general sense ‘wooded or waste land’ must have taken place on the continent. Compare, however, the modern German forchdistel , forchgras , forchheide (Grimm), which seem to contain a word that may be the source of medieval Latin frocus (Old French frou ) waste land; if so fyṙhðe may be derived from it. With regard to the form-history in English, the reduced form fyrðe is represented by firth n.¹, and with metathesis by frith. The fuller form fyrhðe is represented, with metathesis, by Middle English friht, modern Kentish fright-wood. The Welsh ffridd, ffrith, often given as the etymon, are adopted forms of the English word. To the scanty evidence for the Old English fyrhð(e must be added the place-name Pirbright in Surrey, which in documents of 13th and 14th centuries appears as Pirifirith, Pirifright, Pirifrith, Purifright < Old English *pirig-fyrhðe pear-‘frith’: see Cal. Close Rolls 1326 p. 622, Manning & Bray Surrey I. 145, Surrey Fines (Surrey Archæol. Soc.) 22.

Etymology: Metathetic form of firth n.²; possibly suggested by the form frith n.² = firth n.¹, or by the once commonly supposed derivation < Latin fretum.

Etymology: Old English friðian , freoðian , < frith n.¹; compare Old Frisian frethia , ferdia , Old Saxon frithôn , Old High German (ga-)fridôn , Old Norse friða (Swedish freda , Danish frede ). Compare freith v.

Etymology: < frith n.² (senses 3, 4); but perhaps of mixed derivation: see note under frith n.² 4.