freak

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To suddenly become very angry, frightened, or upset (often "freak out").

   When they saw the accident, they freaked out.

2. 2
   noun

   A person who is extremely enthusiastic about something.

   Bob's a real video-game freak; he owns every console.

3. 3
   noun

   Someone or something that is strange or very unusual.

   The two-headed calf was treated as a freak.

Common collocations

• freak accident Adjective + noun

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 frician (“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…

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