Etymology, English, Fresh
Etymology Adjective. From Middle English fressh, from Old English fersc (“fresh, pure, sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *frisk (“fresh”), from Proto-Germanic *friskaz (“fresh”), from Proto-Indo-European *preysk- (“fresh”). 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, “sweet, fresh, unleavened, tasteless”). Doublet of fresco. Also as an 1848 US slang, probably from German frech (“impudent,…