frenum

English

Alternative forms

• fraenum, frænum (hypercorrect, nonstandard)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin frēnum (“bridle, curb, bit”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹiː.nəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːnəm

Noun

frenum (plural frena or frenums)

1. (anatomy) Synonym of frenulum.

Derived terms

• frenal (adjective)
• frenectomy
• frenotomy

References

• “frenum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “frenum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *frēnom, from earlier *θrēnom, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰr-eh₁-nom, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to hold”). Cognates include ferē, fermē and firmus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfreː.nũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfrɛː.num]

Noun

frēnum n (genitive frēnī); second declension

1. bridle, harness, curb, bit
   • 65 CE, Lucius Annaeus Seneca Minor, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium. Epistle XLI:

     Nōn faciunt meliōrem equum aureī frēnī.

     Golden bridles do not make a better horse.

   circumagere frēnīs equōs ― to reverse the direction of horses by the bridle

   addere frēna equīs ― to add the bridles to the horses

2. (transferred sense):
   1. means of guiding or governing; restraint, check, limit
   2. (poetic) horse, steed, charger
   3. (in general):
      1. (post-classical, rare) that which holds things together; band
      2. (anatomy) ligament which attaches the inside of the foreskin to the glans

Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter or otherwise).

	singular	plural
nominative	frēnum	frēna frēnī
genitive	frēnī	frēnōrum
dative	frēnō	frēnīs
accusative	frēnum	frēna frēnōs
ablative	frēnō	frēnīs
vocative	frēnum	frēna frēnī

• Nominative plural is mostly frēnī with frēna occurring more in poets. The ending of frēnī does not stem from the masculine second-declension nominative plural ending; instead it comes from a dual ending.

Derived terms

• effrēnis
• effrēnus
• frēniger
• frēnō
• frēnulum
• infrēnis
• infrēnus

Related terms

• ferē
• fermē
• firmus
• frēnātiō
• frēnātor

Descendants

Descendants

• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: frãn, fãrnu, frãnu
  • Romanian: frână, frâu
• Italo-Western Romance:
  • Italo-Dalmatian:
    • Italian: freno
    • Sicilian: frenu
  • Venetan: fren
  • Western Romance:
    • Gallo-Romance:
      • Gallo-Rhaetian:
        • Old French: frein, frain
          • Middle French: frein m
            • French: frein m (see there for further descendants)
        • Rhaeto-Romance:
          • Friulian: fren
          • Romansch: frain, frein, fragn
      • Occitano-Romance:
        • Catalan: fre
        • Occitan: fren
    • Ibero-Romance:
      • Old Galician-Portuguese: frẽo
        • Galician: freo
        • Portuguese: freio
      • Spanish: freno (see there for further descendants)
• Southern Romance:
  • Sardinian: frenu
• Borrowings:
  • → Albanian: fre
  • → English: frenum
  • → Ido: freno
  • → Proto-Brythonic: *fruɨn
    • Old Welsh: fruinn
      • Middle Welsh: frwyn
        • Welsh: ffrwyn
  • → Old Irish: srían
    • Middle Irish: srían
      • Irish: srian
      • Scottish Gaelic: srian
      • Manx: streean

References

• “frenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “frenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “frenum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) with loose reins: freno remisso; effusis habenis
    
• “frenum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “frenum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Dizionario Latino, Olivetti