# frenum
## English
### Alternative forms

* fraenum, frænum (hypercorrect, nonstandard)

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfɹiː.nəm/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːnəm

### Noun

frenum (plural frena or frenums)
* (anatomy) Synonym of frenulum.

#### Derived terms

* frenal (adjective)
* frenectomy
* frenotomy

### 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 Latin) IPA: /ˈfreː.num/, [ˈfreːnʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈfre.num/, [ˈfrɛːnum]

### Noun

frēnum n (genitive frēnī); second declension
* 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
* (transferred sense):
** means of guiding or governing; restraint, check, limit
** (poetic) horse, steed, charger
** (in general):
*** (post-classical, rare) that which holds things together; band
*** (anatomy) ligament which attaches the inside of the foreskin to the glans

#### Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter or otherwise).
* Nominative plural is mostly frēnī with frēna occurring more in poets. The ending of frēnī does not stem from the masculine second-declension nominative plural ending; instead it comes from a dual ending.

#### Derived terms

* effrēnis
* effrēnus
* frēniger
* frēnō
* frēnulum
* infrēnis
* infrēnus

#### Related terms

* ferē
* fermē
* firmus
* frēnātiō
* frēnātor

#### Descendants

* Eastern Romance:
** Aromanian: frãn, fãrnu, frãnu
** Romanian: frână, frâu
* Italian: freno
* Old French: frein
** Middle French: frein m
*** French: frein m
**** → Khmer: ហ្វ្រ័ង (frang)
**** → Ottoman Turkish: فرن (fren), فره‌ن (fren)
***** Turkish: fren
**** → Vietnamese: phanh
* Old Occitan:
** Catalan: fre
** Occitan: fren
* Old Galician-Portuguese: frẽo
** Galician: freo
** Portuguese: freio
* Old Spanish:
** Spanish: freno
*** → Bikol Central: preno
*** → Cebuano: preno
*** → Magdalena Peñasco Mixtec: frenu
*** → Southeastern Tepehuan: piriiñ
*** → Tagalog: preno
* Rhaeto-Romance:
** Friulian: fren
** Romansch: frain, frein, fragn
* Sardinian: frenu
* Sicilian: frenu
* Venetan: 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, 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