refret
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English
Etymology 1
Verb
refret (third-person singular simple present refrets, present participle refretting, simple past and past participle refretted)
- (transitive) To replace the frets on (a musical instrument).
- Can you refret my guitar?
Etymology 2
From Middle English refreit, from Anglo-Norman refreit (“response”), refraindre (“to sing a refrain”); also Old French refreit (“refrain”). The Oxford English Dictionary suggests influence from an unattested Late Latin form, refrangere; compare Latin refractus (past participle). See refrain (noun), refract.
Alternative forms
Noun
refret (plural refrets)
- (obsolete) A refrain.
- 1820, Samuel Weller Singer, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Prince of Denmark, page 136:
- Our old English term refrette, ‘the foote of the dittie, a verse often interlaced, or the burden of a song,’ was probably from refrain; or from refresteler, to pipe over again. […] ‘Refrain, the refret, burthen, or downe of a ballad.’ All this discussion is rendered necessary, because Steevens unfortunately forgot to note from whence he made the following extract,
References
- “refret”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “refraid, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2009.
