frenum

English

Alternative forms

• fraenum, frænum (hypercorrect, nonstandard)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹiː.nəm/
• Rhymes: -iːnəm

Noun

frenum (plural frena or frenums)

1. (anatomy) Synonym of frenulum.

Derived terms

• frenal (adjective)

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) IPA^(key): /ˈfreː.num/, [ˈfreːnʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfre.num/, [ˈfrɛːnum]

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).

Case	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.

Derived terms

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

 

Related terms

• fermē
• ferē
• firmus
• frēnātiō
• frēnātor

 

Descendants

Descendants of frenum in other languages

• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: frãn, fãrnu, frãnu
  • Romanian: frână, frâu
• Italian: freno
• Old French: frein
  • French: frein
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: fre
  • Occitan: fren
• Old Galician-Portuguese: frẽo
  • Galician: freo
  • Portuguese: freio
• Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: freno
    • → Bikol Central: preno
    • → Cebuano: preno
    • → Tagalog: preno
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: fren
  • Romansch: frain, frein, fragn
• Sardinian: frenu
• Sicilian: frenu
• Venetian: fren
• → Albanian: fre
• → Proto-Brythonic: *fruɨn
  • Old Welsh: fruin
    • Middle Welsh: ffrwyn
      • Welsh: ffrwyn
• → English: frenum
• → 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^[1], 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