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From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (“for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward, toward”)) + *etaną (“to eat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)). The senses meaning “to chafe, rub” could also be due to sound-association with Anglo-Norman *freiter (modern dialectal French fretter), from Vulgar Latin *frictāre, frequentative of Latin fricāre, from fricō (“to chafe, rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut”); compare Old French froter (modern French frotter). The chief difficulty is the lack of evidence of the Old French word. Cognates *Dutch vreten, fretten (“to devour, hog, wolf”) *Low German freten (“to eat up”) *German fressen (“to devour, gobble up, guzzle”) *Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”) *Swedish fräta (“to eat away, corrode, fret”) *Danish fråse (“to gorge”)

From Middle English frēten (“to decorate”), from Old French freté, freter, fretter (“to fret (decorate with an interlacing pattern)”), from Old French fret (from fraindre (“to break”), from Latin frangō (“to break, shatter”), + Old French -er (suffix forming verbs) (from Latin -āre, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃enh₂- (“to burden, charge”)).

From Middle English freten (“to bind”), from Old French freter, from frete (“ferrule, ring”) (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).

From Latin fretum (“channel, strait”). Doublet of fretum.

From Old French frete, fraite, fraicte, possibly partly confused with fret (“channel, strait”).

Attested since the mid-1800s, of unknown origin. Perhaps related to fret (“to form a pattern upon”), fret (“to consume”) (as the fog does the land), or fret (“to agitate the surface of water”) (as the wind which blows the fog inland does); compare the semantics of haar (“cold wind; misty wind; fog, mist”). Dialectally, the spelling freet and pronunciation /fɹit/ are also found, as they also are for fret (“consume; agitate”).