freogan

Old English

Alternative forms

• frēogean, frēon, frīġan, frīan, frēwan

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *frijōn, from Proto-Germanic *frijōną, from Proto-Indo-European *preyH-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfre͜oː.jɑn/

Verb

frēoġan

1. to free, to liberate
   • Deuteronomy:

   Freo hine on ðam seofoðan geare.

   Free him in the seventh year.

2. to like, to love, to honour
   • Beowulf:

   Ic ðec for sunu wylle freogan.

   I will love you as a son.

Conjugation

Conjugation of frēoġan (weak class 2)

infinitive	frēoġan	frēoġenne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	frēo	frēode
second person singular	frēost	frēodest
third person singular	frēoþ	frēode
plural	frēoġaþ	frēodon
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	frēoġe	frēode
plural	frēoġen	frēoden
imperative
singular	frēo
plural	frēoġaþ
participle	present	past
	frēoġende	(ġe)frēod

Derived terms

• befrēoġan
• ġefrēoġan

Related terms

• frēond
• friþ
• frīġ
• frēo
• frēod

Descendants

• Middle English: freen
  • English: free
  • Scots: fre, frey, free

Further reading

• Campbell, Alistair (1959) Old English grammar, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 335:

  Frēoġan set free, love, past frēode, is developed from *frīōi̯-, *frīō-. These would give OE *frīeġ- > *frīiġ- (§376) > *frīġ-, and frīo-, frēo-. Accordingly VP has pres. indic. sg. ġefrīgu, -frēos, -frīoð, -frēoð, -frēað, pl. -frīġað, imper. -frīa, -frēa, past -frīode, -frēode, -frēade, and so pass. part. In view of this clear distinction of two stems frīġ-, frīo- in VP, the W-S stem frēoġ- is to be regarded as a contamination of frīġ- by frēo-; so also Ru. pres. subj. ġefrēoġe.

• Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 361:

  We would expect 'to love; to set free' to have been pre-OE *frijōja- ~ *frijō- [...] In early WS, however, the stem frīo- of the pres. indic. 2sg., 3sg., iptv. 2sg., which is supported by past frīo-d-, has been levelled into the rest of the present paradigm, giving a longer stem frīoġa- (Hogg and Fulk 2011: 287-8).

• Hogg, Richard M., Fulk, R. D. (2011) A Grammar of Old English: Volume 2: Morphology, page 287:

  Vowel contraction also occurred in stems that had PGmc *-ij- before *-ō-, since /j/ was lost, with compensatory lengthening, see Hogg (1992b: §7.70), followed by loss of hiatus. The PGmc stem *frij-ōj- 'liberate, love' thus produced Pre-OE *frī-ōj-, which then developed to *frī-ej- > *frī-ij- (ibid.: §6.52) > frīġ-, whilst the alternative stem without /j/ after /oː/, *frij-ō-, developed to *frī-ō- > WS frīo-, frēo-. In WS, the diphthong of the latter stem was levelled into the former, producing a paradigm like that of twēoġan, with inf. frēoġan, pret.sg. frēode