fresh

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Recently made, picked, or produced; not old or stale.

   I love the smell of fresh bread in the morning.

2. 2
   adj

   Not preserved by canning, freezing, or other methods.

   She bought fresh vegetables at the market.

3. 3
   adj

   New; just started.

   After the holiday I felt ready for a fresh start.

4. 4
   adj

   Clean and not yet used.

   He put on a fresh shirt for the meeting.

5. 5
   adj

   Containing no salt; from rivers or rain rather than the sea.

   Fish in this lake need fresh water to survive.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Fresh is an Old English word that originally meant “not salted,” especially when applied to food. During the Middle Ages it developed senses such as “newly made” and “not faded or worn.” Its 19th-century meaning “cheeky” or “impudent” may have been influenced by German frech, “saucy.”

From Middle English fressh, from Old English fersċ (“fresh, pure, sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *frisk (“fresh”), from Proto-Germanic *friskaz (“fresh”), from Proto-Indo-European *preysk- (“fresh”). The verb is from Middle English freshen (“to freshen”), from the adjective. Cognate with Scots fresch (“fresh”), West Frisian farsk (“fresh”), Dutch vers (“fresh”), Walloon frexh (“fresh”), German frisch (“fresh”), French frais (“fresh”), Norwegian and Danish frisk (“fresh”), fersk, Icelandic ferskur (“fresh”), Lithuanian prėskas (“unflavoured, tasteless, fresh”), Russian пре́сный (présnyj, “sw…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary