effrayer

Inherited from Middle French effreer, from Old French esfreer, esfreder (whence also English affray), from a Vulgar Latin *exfridāre, itself of Germanic origin (with the prefix ex- added), from a Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”).

• IPA^(key): /e.fʁɛ.je/ ~ /e.fʁe.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

effrayer

1. (transitive) to frighten, to scare, to affray

   Synonyms: épouvanter, faire peur, horrifier, terrifier, terroriser

   • 2018, Zaz, Je parle:

     C’est le silence qui m’effraie.

     It's silence that frightens me.

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

• effraie
• effroi
• effroyable

• “effrayer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.