freke
freke noun: a brave man, a warrior, a man-at-arms. Also the obsolete form of freak.
Noun
freke (plural frekes or freken)
- A brave man, a warrior, a man-at-arms.
- Þen found he no frekes to fraist on his strenght.1540, Destruction of Troy
- There was never a freke one foot would flee, but still in stour did stand.1891, Henry Morley, A Bundle of Ballads
- A man; a human being; a person.
- þes fifti, alle ferliche freken.1225, St. Katherine of Alexandria
- Go not forthe as a dombe freke.1475, Book of Courtesy
- A creature such as a giant, demon, angel.
- Bringing my love, for Time’s a freke of jealous strain; […]1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
Also used as
freke is also the obsolete form of freak.
Forms of freke
| plural | frekes |
|---|---|
| plural | freken |
| alternative form | freak |
Origin of freke
From Middle English freke (“a bold man, warrior, man, creature”), from Old English freca (“a bold man, warrior, hero”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *frekô (“an active or eagre man, warrior, wolf”), from *frekaz (“active, bold, desirous, greedy”), from Proto-Indo-European *preg- (“to shrug, be quick, twitch, splash, blast”). Akin with Old Norse freki (“greedy or avaricious one, a wolf”), Old High German freh (“eager”), Old English frēcne (“dangerous, daring, courageous, bold”).
Questions about freke
- What does freke mean?
- Freke means a brave man, a warrior, a man-at-arms.
- What part of speech is freke?
- Freke is a noun.
- What is the plural of freke?
- The plural of freke is frekes.
Words near freke in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: freke (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “freke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.