frizz

English

Alternative forms

• friz (dated)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɹɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪz

Etymology 1

From Middle English frysen, from Old French friser, frizer (“to frizzle, crisp, curl, ruffle, braid, touch lightly, graze, scratch”), of Proto-Germanic origin, perhaps via Old Frankish *fris (“curl”), from Proto-Germanic *frisaz (“frizzy, curly”). Cognate with Old Frisian frisle, frēsle ("the hair of the head, lock of hair, curl, ringlet"; > North Frisian friessle, fressle (“hair, horse's tail”), West Frisian frisseljen (“braid of hair, braid”)), Old English frīs (“crisped, curled”).

Verb

frizz (third-person singular simple present frizzes, present participle frizzing, simple past and past participle frizzed)

1. (intransitive) Of hair, to form into a mass of tight curls.
2. (transitive) To curl; to make frizzy.
   • 1660 December 2 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “November 22nd, 1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC:

     with her hair frized short up to her ears

   • 1937, John Betjeman, Slough:

     In labour-saving homes, with care, / Their wives frizz out peroxide hair.

   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; […]

3. To form into little burs, knobs, or tufts, as the nap of cloth.
4. To make (leather) soft and of even thickness by rubbing, as with pumice stone or a blunt instrument.
5. To fry, cook, or sear with a sizzling noise; to sizzle.

Derived terms

• frizz up

Related terms

• friseur
• frizzle

Translations

of hair: to form into a mass of curls

• Bulgarian: къдря (kǎdrja), накъдрям (bg) (nakǎdrjam)
• Finnish: kähertyä
• German: kräuseln (de), verwuscheln (de)
• Norman: crêp'ler

to curl; to make frizzy

• Czech: nakadeřit pf, natočit pf
• Finnish: kähertää

to form into little burs, knobs, or tufts, as the nap of cloth

• Finnish: nukkaantua (fi)
• German: aufrauen (de)

to make leather soft and of even thickness

• Finnish: pehmittää (fi)

Etymology 2

From Middle English fryse, from the verb. See above.

Noun

frizz (countable and uncountable, plural frizzes)

1. A mass of tightly curled or unruly hair.

Translations

mass of hair

• Bulgarian: къдрица (bg) (kǎdrica)
• Czech: kudrliny f pl
• Finnish: takku (fi)
• German: Krause (de) f
• Polish: baranek (pl) m

Further reading

• “frizz”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “frizz”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English frizz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈfɾiθ/ [ˈfɾiθ]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /ˈfɾis/ [ˈfɾis]
• (Spain) Rhymes: -iθ
• (Latin America) Rhymes: -is
• Syllabification: frizz

Noun

frizz m (uncountable)

1. frizz (of hair)
   • 2017 November 25, Nural Cokcetin and Shona Blain, “La miel de manuka y sus beneficios: qué es, sus mitos y verdades”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     La miel de manuka, aparentemente, también puede aumentar la energía, "desintoxicar" el organismo, reducir el colesterol, evitar la diabetes, mejorar el sueño, tonificar la piel, reducir la pérdida del cabello e incluso prevenir el "frizz" y las puntas abiertas de los cabellos.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.