frit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɹɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

Either from French fritte, from frit (“fried”), or else from Italian fritta f (“fried”).

Noun

frit (countable and uncountable, plural frits)

1. A pre-fused ceramic mixture used to make glass and glazes.
2. (archaeology) Such material used in the manufacture of ceramic beads and small ornaments. (eastern Mediterranean; Bronze and Iron Age)
3. Such material that is resistant to melting and used to physically support objects in a crucible.
4. A material, whether ceramic, plastic or some other material, that is used for support in chemical apparatus.
5. Any of many black enamel dots baked in a graded pattern onto the glass around the edge of a windshield.
   • 2025 May 6, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Fact Frenzy on X ‎^[1]:

     Made from ceramic paint baked directly into the glass, frits help bond the windscreen to the vehicle by providing a textured surface for adhesives and shielding them from damaging UV rays.

Derived terms

• frit brick
• fritless
• fritware

Translations

fused mixture of materials

• Bulgarian: стъкломаса f (stăklomasa)
• Catalan: frita (ca) f
• Czech: frita f
• French: fritte (fr) f
• German: Fritte (de) f
• Polish: fryta (pl) f
• Portuguese: frita (pt) f

Verb

frit (third-person singular simple present frits, present participle fritting, simple past and past participle fritted)

1. To add frit to a glass or ceramic mixture
2. To prepare by heat (the materials for making glass); to fuse partially.
   • 1831, Benjamin Silliman, Elements of Chemistry:

     equal parts of the calcined and roasted ore, of ground flints and potash, are fritted together and then fused

Etymology 2

Dialectal past participle of fright (“frighten”), formed on the model of bite:bit and light:lit. Compare the parallel formation fit (“fought”).

By the late 20th century, largely confined to the Lincolnshire dialect, but adopted into political slang in the 1980s from the speeches of Grantham-born Margaret Thatcher.

Adjective

frit (comparative more frit, superlative most frit)

1. (UK, regional, now especially politics) Frightened.
   • 1983 Margaret Thatcher, Prime minister's questions, 19 April:

     The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election, is he? Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Could not take it? Cannot stand it? If I were going to cut and run, I should have gone after the Falklands.

   • 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 272:

     “We shoulder life. We know its ins and outs. We've felt the draught at either end of it. What you're most frit of, that's our bread and jam, and none of us ain't got no time to spare on ignorant, bad-mannered little boys.”

Noun

frit (plural frits)

1. (UK politics, derogatory) A politician who does not perform some action (for example answering a question or calling a vote) out of fear of losing.
   • 2022, Peter Fortune, “Impact of ULEZ expansion and road charging (Supplementary)”, in Questions to the Mayor (London Assembly)‎^[2]:

     Why are you not going to bother? You are scared? You are a frit? Is that the problem?

Etymology 3

Noun

frit (plural frits)

1. A frit fly.

See also

• frit away
• frit fly

Anagrams

• FTIR, rift

Danish

Adjective

frit

1. neuter singular of fri

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French frit, from Latin frīctus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁi/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

Participle

frit (feminine frite, masculine plural frits, feminine plural frites)

1. past participle of frire

Adjective

frit (feminine frite, masculine plural frits, feminine plural frites)

1. fried

Related terms

• frire
• friture

See also

• frite

Further reading

• “frit”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain; proposed derivations include:

• From a root common to Ancient Greek θρίξ (thríx, “hair”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewd-. Cognates include Latin frutex (“shrub”), Old English brēotan (“to break”), Old Irish broth (“awn”) and maybe Lithuanian brùzgas (“bush, shrub”).

Noun

frit n (indeclinable)

1. awn

Synonyms

• arista

References

• “frit”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “frit”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Norman

Etymology

From Old French fruit, from Latin fructus.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey):

  (file)

Noun

frit m (plural frits)

1. (Jersey, continental) fruit

Derived terms

• gardîn à frit (“orchard”) (Jersey)

Old Irish

Etymology 1

Pronoun

frit

1. second-person singular of fri

Alternative forms

• friut

Etymology 2

Contraction

frit

1. contraction of fri +‎ do, literally “towards/to/against/with your sg”