fraught
/frɔːt/
adjective
Origin
Middle Low German
vracht — cargo, load, or freight
Overview
Meaning Now
- Filled with or destined to result in something (typically something undesirable).
- Causing or affected by great anxiety or stress.
Literal older meaning
laden or freighted (as a ship with cargo)
Language path
Middle Low German → Middle English → English
Earliest form
fraught
Earliest period
14th century
Journey
The word originally entered the English language as the past participle of the verb 'to fraught', which meant to load a ship with cargo. Because 'fraught' sounded like a past participle—much like 'taught' or 'caught'—it was eventually reanalyzed as an adjective in its own right. Over time, the heavy, burdensome physical sense of carrying a load shifted to the psychological sense of carrying a heavy emotional weight.
Evolution
- Proto-Germanic
*fraht-
“load or cargo”
- Middle Low German
vracht
“cargo or freight”
- Middle English
fraught
“laden with cargo; loaded”
Introduced as a past participle of the verb 'fraught', meaning to load a ship.
- 17th century English
fraught
“full of or burdened with”
The figurative sense of 'burdened with' began to overtake the nautical 'laden with'.
- Modern English
fraught
“full of stress or anxiety”
Connections
Word parts
fraught
root
laden or burdened
Related across languages
German
Fracht
cargo or freight
Dutch
vracht
load or freight
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Related to fraught
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.