English edit

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /fɹɪz/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪz

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English frysen, from Old French friser, frizer (to frizzle, crisp, curl, ruffle, braid, touch lightly, graze, scratch), of Proto-Germanic origin, perhaps via Old Frankish *fris (curl), from Proto-Germanic *frisaz (frizzy, curly). Cognate with Old Frisian frisle, frēsle ("the hair of the head, lock of hair, curl, ringlet"; > North Frisian friessle, fressle (hair, horse's tail), West Frisian frisseljen (braid of hair, braid)), Old English frīs (crisped, curled).

Verb edit

frizz (third-person singular simple present frizzes, present participle frizzing, simple past and past participle frizzed)

  1. (intransitive) Of hair, to form into a mass of tight curls.
  2. (transitive) To curl; to make frizzy.
    • 1660 December 2 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “November 22nd, 1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys [], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons []; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC:
      with her hair frized short up to her ears
    • 1937, John Betjeman, Slough:
      In labour-saving homes, with care, / Their wives frizz out peroxide hair.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
      There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; []
  3. To form into little burs, knobs, or tufts, as the nap of cloth.
  4. To make (leather) soft and of even thickness by rubbing, as with pumice stone or a blunt instrument.
  5. To fry, cook, or sear with a sizzling noise; to sizzle.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English fryse, from the verb. See above.

Noun edit

frizz (countable and uncountable, plural frizzes)

  1. A mass of tightly curled or unruly hair.
Translations edit

Further reading edit

Spanish edit

Etymology edit

Unadapted borrowing from English frizz.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): (Spain) /ˈfɾiθ/ [ˈfɾiθ]
  • IPA(key): (Latin America) /ˈfɾis/ [ˈfɾis]
  • (Spain) Rhymes: -iθ
  • (Latin America) Rhymes: -is
  • Syllabification: frizz

Noun edit

frizz m (uncountable)

  1. frizz (of hair)
    • 2017 November 25, Nural Cokcetin and Shona Blain, “La miel de manuka y sus beneficios: qué es, sus mitos y verdades”, in CNN[1]:
      La miel de manuka, aparentemente, también puede aumentar la energía, "desintoxicar" el organismo, reducir el colesterol, evitar la diabetes, mejorar el sueño, tonificar la piel, reducir la pérdida del cabello e incluso prevenir el "frizz" y las puntas abiertas de los cabellos.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes edit

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.