Etymology: < Middle French refrein, Middle French, French refrain one or more words repeated at the end of each verse of a poem or song (c1300 in Old French; the transferred sense ‘repeated comment or complaint’ is apparently not paralleled in French until later: 1580), repeated piece of music, also a melody in general (1792 or earlier), either an alteration (after refraindre , refreindre : see refraid n.) of refret , refreit refraid n., or perhaps < Old Occitan refranh proverb, commonplace (c1220 as refraing ), repeated words (c1350), probably an alteration (after the present stem of the underlying verb) of refrach repeated notes, warbling (of a bird) (early 13th cent.), use as noun of past participle of refranher to repeat (words, notes, a song) (first half of the 12th cent., originally with reference to birdsong) < an unattested post-classical Latin form *refrangere (see refrangent adj.). Compare Catalan refrany (c1390; now chiefly in sense ‘proverb’ (1490)), Spanish refrán (a1348), Portuguese refrão (1543; probably 14th cent. as †refran ), all earliest in sense ‘repeated words’, all directly or indirectly < Old Occitan. Compare refraid n.The Middle French form refraynt recorded by Palsgrave (see quot. 1530 at sense 2) does not appear to be attested elsewhere in French sources; it is probably influenced by the English form refraynt in Palsgrave's entry, which in turn probably shows excrescent -t.

Etymology: < refrain v. Compare Middle French, French †refrainte restraint (14th cent.), act of curbing or keeping in check (1611 in Cotgrave).

Etymology: Partly < Anglo-Norman and Middle French refraindre, refreindre (stressed stem refraign-, refreign-, refrain-, refrein-; in Anglo-Norman also, with change of conjugation, refreignier, refreiner) to restrain, repress (one's emotions, desires, thoughts) (c1150 in Old French), to restrain oneself (late 12th cent., used reflexively), to abstain from (doing something) (end of the 12th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman, used reflexively), to desist from (an action) (early 13th cent. or earlier, used reflexively), to restrain, hold back, immobilize (a person) (c1300 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), to curb (the emotions, feelings) of (a person) (14th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), to restrain, hold back (a thing) (1314), to curb (one's appetite) (c1375), to keep (a person) from doing something (first half of the 15th cent. or earlier in refreindre quelqu'un de quelque chose ; for the ulterior etymology see refraid n.), and partly < Anglo-Norman and Middle French refrener, Middle French (rare) refregner (French refréner , réfréner ) to restrain, hold back (a thing) (first half of the 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman), to restrain, repress (one's emotions, habits) (second half of the 12th cent.; in Anglo-Norman also used reflexively with prepositional phrase: s'est mult li reis de s'ire refrenés ‘the king curbed his anger well’ (late 12th cent.)), to curb (the emotions, feelings) of (a person) (late 12th cent. in Anglo-Norman), to restrain, hold back (a person) (late 12th cent.), to abstain from (doing something) (end of the 12th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman) and its etymon classical Latin refrēnāre to hold (a horse) back, rein in, to hold back, curb, restrain, to check ( < re- re- prefix + frēnum , fraenum bridle: see fraenum n.).French refrener shows much formal and semantic overlap with refreindre , which it eventually superseded. In Anglo-Norman, the two verbs appear to have merged. In English, the Older Scots β. forms most clearly show the reflex of the French palatalized consonant cluster which occurs in refreindre ; the α. forms probably partly reflect stem variation in French refreindre (compare e.g. maintain v., and see note at that entry), and partly (e.g. in the case of refrene) derive from the French synonym refrener.