freten by sowe

[Mark Mandel]

OED, "fret", v.1:
1.    a. trans. Chiefly of animals: To eat, devour. Also with up and
to eat of. Obs.
       b. transf. To devour, consume, destroy. Obs.
I looked in the

At 3/2/2008 03:04 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>I think this comes from {for-} + {eten}, where {for-} is the common PIE
>destructive prefix.

So saith the Good Book (OED Online), s.v. "fret", v.1.

On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 5:19 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>  I don't understand your point. There's not sufficient semantic
>  distinction between "eat up" and "eat like an animal," it seems to me,
>  to make a claim about them.

1.    a. trans. Chiefly of animals: To eat, devour. Also with up and
to eat of. Obs.
       b. transf. To devour, consume, destroy. Obs.

(Loc. cit.) And for a comfort, this passage wasn't among the quotations.

m a m

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