freak
Meanings
- Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable.
- A hippie.
- A drug addict.
- A person who is extremely abnormal in appearance, social behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity, or business practices; an oddball, a unique person, originally in a displeasing or alienating way.
- A person whose physique has grown far beyond the normal limits of muscular development; often a bodybuilder weighing more than 260 pounds (120 kg).
- An enthusiast, or person who has an obsession with, or extreme knowledge of, something.
- A very sexually perverse individual.
- A wild dance.
- A sudden change of mind.
- A streak of colour; variegation.
- Euphemistic form of fuck (“smallest amount of concern or consideration”).
- To react extremely or irrationally, usually under distress or discomposure.
- To be placed or place someone under the influence of a psychedelic drug, (especially) to experience reality withdrawal, or hallucinations (nightmarish), to behave irrational or unconventional due to drug use.
- To streak; to variegate
- Strange, weird, unexpected.
- A man, particularly a bold, strong, vigorous man.
- A fellow; a petulant young man.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
First appears c. 1567. The sense "sudden change of mind, a whim" is of uncertain origin. Probably from a dialectal word related to Middle English frekynge (“capricious behavior; whims”) and Middle English friken, frikien (“to move briskly or nimbly”), from Old English frīcian (“to leap, dance”), or Middle English frek (“insolent, daring”), from Old English frec (“desirous, greedy, eager, bold, daring”), from Proto-West Germanic *frek, from Proto-Germanic *frekaz, *frakaz (“hard, efficient, greedy, bold, audacious”) (in which case, it would be related to the noun under Etymology 2). Compare Old High German freh (“eager”), Old English frēcne (“dangerous”). For the meaning development compare Russian заско́к (zaskók) akin to скок (skok), скака́ть (skakátʹ).