Meaning

noun a ruff for the neck worn in the 16th century

noun sloping or horizontal rampart of pointed stakes

originFrom Middle English fraisen, from Old English frāsian (“to ask, try, tempt”), from Proto-Germanic *fraisōną (“to attempt, try”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to attempt, try; risk, peril”). Cognate with West Frisian freezje (“to fear”), Dutch vrezen (“to fear, dread, be afraid”), German freisen (“to put at risk, endanger, terrify”). Alternatively the Middle English fraisen was borrowed from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0