What does frighted mean?
Frighted describes someone who has been suddenly struck with fear — startled, alarmed, or terror-struck. It is essentially an older form of what we would now call 'frightened': for centuries, English speakers formed the past participle of the verb 'fright' as 'frighted', and this is the form found throughout the works of Shakespeare, Milton, and their contemporaries. Over time, however, 'frighten' displaced 'fright' as the ordinary verb of fear, and 'frightened' took over as the standard participle. Today 'frighted' sounds distinctly literary or archaic, encountered mainly in quotations from Renaissance drama and poetry, where phrases like 'all frighted' or 'sore frighted' appear regularly. For readers of early modern literature it remains a useful word to recognise: it carries the same emotional force as its modern successor, evoking sudden, overwhelming alarm rather than lingering dread. Using it today lends a deliberately old-fashioned flavour, but for general writing 'frightened' is the expected choice.
Frightened; seized with sudden fear.
"She turned to him, frighted by the strange noise below."
Now chiefly literary or archaic; 'frightened' is the normal modern form.
Past participle of the now-obsolescent verb 'fright', meaning to frighten or terrify someone.
"The apparition so frighted the watchman that he dropped his lantern."
This verb use survives almost exclusively in quotations from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts.
Shakespeare's characters tremble 'frighted', not 'frightened' — the word you know from horror movies is really the newcomer.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of frighted
'Frighted' derives from 'fright', a native Germanic word going back to Old English 'fyrhto' (fear, terror), related to forms in other Germanic languages such as Old Norse 'fyrðr' and Gothic. In Middle and early modern English, 'fright' functioned as a verb as well as a noun, and its past participle was 'frighted'; Shakespeare uses both noun and participle freely. From the seventeenth century onward the verb 'frighten' gradually replaced 'fright', bringing 'frightened' with it, and 'frighted' retreated into literary and historical usage. Cognate derivatives from the same Germanic root include 'frightful' and 'freight' (a doublet via Dutch vracht), though only 'frightful' retains the original sense of fear.
Related word forms
How frighted is actually used
'Frighted' is now rare and belongs mostly to older literature, particularly Shakespeare and his contemporaries; modern writers almost always use 'frightened' instead. It survives mainly in quotations from early English drama and poetry.
Easily confused with frighted
'Frightened' is the modern everyday participle and adjective of fear, while 'frighted' is an older, largely literary form of much the same meaning.
'Freighted' refers to being loaded or burdened with cargo or weight, whereas 'frighted' means struck with fear; they differ by only one letter.