freight
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: frāt
ipa: /fɹeɪt/
rhymes: -eɪt
Forms: form: freights
Etymology: From Late Middle English freight, freght, freyght [and other forms], a variant of fraught, fraght (“transport of goods or people, usually by water; transportation fee; transportation facilities; cargo or passengers of a ship; (figuratively) burden; ballast of a ship; goods; a charge”), from Middle Dutch vracht, vrecht, and Middle Low German vrecht (“cargo, freight; transportation fee”), from Old Saxon frāht, frēht, from Proto-West Germanic *fra- (from Proto-Germanic *fra- (prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’)) + *aihti (from Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possessions, property”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess”)).
The English word can be analysed as for- + aught, and is a doublet of fraught.
Cognates
* French fret (“cargo, freight; transportation fees; rental of a ship”)
* Old English ǣht (“livestock; possession, property; power”)
* Old High German frēht (“earnings”)
* Portuguese frete (“cargo, freight; transportation fees”)
* Spanish flete (“cargo, freight; charter (hire of a vehicle for transporting cargo)”)
* Swedish frakt c (“cargo, freight; transportation fees”)
Senses: examples: text: [A]fter ſome Conſideration, that the City of Hamburgh might happen to be as good a Market for our Goods as London, we all took Freight with him, and having put my Goods on board, it was moſt natural for me to put my Steward on board to take care of them, […]
ref: 1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 372:
glosses: The transportation of goods (originally by water; now also (chiefly US) by land); also, the hiring of a vehicle or vessel for such transportation.
examples: text: The freight shifted and the trailer turned over on the highway.
text: Diſcretion is the ballaſt of our Ship, that carries us ſteady; but Zeal is the very Fraight, the Cargaſon, the Merchandiſe it ſelf, vvhich enriches us in the land of the living; and this vvas our caſe, vve vvere all come to eſteem our Ballaſt more then our Fraight, our Diſcretion more then our Zeal; we had more care to pleaſe great men then God; more conſideration of an imaginary change of times, then of unchangeable eternity it ſelf.
ref: 1625 January 25 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Donne, “A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstans January 15. 1625. The First Sermon after Our Dispersion, by the Sickness.”, in XXVI. Sermons (Never before Publish’d) Preached by that Learned and Reverend Divine John Donne, […] The Third Volume, London: […] Thomas Newcomb, […], published 1661, →OCLC, page 295:
text: Space for carrying light freight also features in Grand Union's proposal. The company says it is working with partners at Intercity Railfreight on the logistics of this, with refrigerated space to be available for movement of urgent NHS biological materials. Initially freight would be carried in the DVTs of the Class 91/Mk 4 sets, while on the Class 802s the kitchen/buffet would be located towards the centre of the train to make space for freight.
ref: 2019 October, “South Wales Open Access Bid”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allen Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:
glosses: Goods or items in transport; cargo, luggage.
examples: text: The freight was more expensive for cars than for coal.
text: [I]f I would let the ſame Men who were in the Ship navigate her, he would hire the Ship to go to Japan, and would ſend them from thence to the Philippine Iſlands with another Loading, which he would pay the Freight of, before they went from Japan; and that at their Return, he would buy the Ship: […]
ref: 1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 292:
text: Had the ship earned her freight? To earn freight there must, of course, be either a right delivery, or a due and proper offer to deliver the goods to the consignees.
ref: 1881 February 26, [John] Lowell, judge of the Circuit Court, District of Massachusetts, “Taylor and Others v. Insurance Company of North America”, in Peyton Boyle, editor, The Federal Reporter. […] (1st Series), volume 6, St. Paul, Minn: West Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 412:
glosses: Payment for transportation.
examples: text: Thus Apple Trees, whoſe Trunks are ſtrong to bear
 Their ſpreading Boughs, exert themſelves in Air:
 Want no supply, but ſtand ſecure alone,
 Not truſting foreign Forces, but their own:
 'Till with the ruddy freight the bending Branches groan.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 89, lines 595–599:
text: Now homeward through the thickening hubbub, where
 See, among less distinguishable shapes,
 […] the stately and slow-moving Turk,
 With freight of slippers piled beneath his arm!
ref: 1799–1805 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book VII. Residence in London.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind; an Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 180:
glosses: A burden, a load.
examples: text: Ideally, those engaged in contributing to that discourse would have some awareness of the emotional forces which may be called into play by the simple appearance in print or a broadcast clip of a phrase built around the word 'freedom'. This may seem to be a quite unrealistic aim, until we note that some contributors to the emotional public sphere – advertising creatives – are very aware of the emotional freight that simple words may carry, and seek to direct that freight to particular destinations (with particular behavioural consequences).
ref: 2007, Barry Richards, “Poor Emotional Governance”, in Emotional Governance: Politics, Media and Terror, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, →ISBN, part III (The Search for Connection), page 116:
glosses: Cultural or emotional associations.
examples: text: They shipped it ordinary freight to spare the expense.
text: The track, raggedly defined in trampled loam and muddy furrow, bent in a direction which indicated that its terminus might be the switch where the empty cars had stood last night, waiting for the one-o'clock freight.
ref: 1899, Booth Tarkington, “The Court-house Bell”, in The Gentleman from Indiana, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday & McClure Co., published 1900, →OCLC, page 174:
text: Two westbound freights were in the vicinity and the operator was kept busy passing them radio messages with the latest information on the late running of the streamliners, to allow the enginemen to keep moving until the last possible minute before they had to sidetrack their trains to let the fast trains overtake.
ref: 1961 July, J. Geoffrey Todd, “Impressions of Railroading in the United States: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 423:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Ellipsis of freight train.
Derived terms: word: airfreight
word: air freight
word: cost and freight
word: dead freight
word: freightable
word: freight bicycle
word: freight car
word: freight carriage
word: freight carrier
word: freighthopper
word: freight hopper
word: freight hopping
word: freighthopping
word: freightless
word: freight-only
word: freight operating company
word: freight train
word: freight tricycle
word: freight truck
word: freight wagon
word: freightwagon
word: freight yard
word: freightyard
word: hop a freight
word: hop freight
word: nonfreight
word: overfreight
word: pay one's own freight
word: pay the freight
word: rail freight
word: time freight
Related terms: word: fraught