IS the verb 'to fret' or to worry derived from the fretboard

Ted

Sorry it's a bit of an idle, etymoligical question.

Just wondered.

the_jaffa

Nope, fretting was around long before the fretboard. 

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fret

Ted

the_jaffa said:

Nope, fretting was around long before the fretboard. 

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fret

thnak you. So why is the guitar's key note making feature basically called the 'worry-board'?

fandango

Ted said:

the_jaffa said:

Nope, fretting was around long before the fretboard. 

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fret

thnak you. So why is the guitar's key note making feature basically called the 'worry-board'?

Because the Blues, innit?

Grangousier

This will probably answer your question: https://www.etymonline.com/word/fret#etymonline_v_14170

fret (v.)
Old English fretan "devour, feed upon, consume," from Proto-Germanic compound *fra-etan "to eat up," from *fra- "completely" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "through") + *etan "to eat" (from PIE root *ed- "to eat"). Cognates include Dutch vreten, Old High German frezzan, German fressen, Gothic fraitan.
Used of monsters and Vikings; in Middle English used of animals' eating. Notion of "wear away by rubbing or scraping" (c. 1200) might have come to this word by sound-association with Anglo-French forms of Old French froter "to rub, wipe; beat, thrash," which is from Latin fricare "to rub" (see friction). Figurative use is from c. 1200, of emotions, sins, vices, etc., "to worry, consume, vex" someone or someone's heart or mind, from either the "eating" or the "rubbing" sense. Intransitive sense "be worried, vex oneself" is by 1550s. Modern German still distinguishes essen for humans and fressen for animals. Related: Fretted; fretting. As a noun, early 15c., "a gnawing," also "the wearing effect" of awareness of wrongdoing, fear, etc

fret (n.2)

"ridge on the fingerboard of a guitar," c. 1500, of unknown origin, possibly from another sense of Old French frete "ring, ferule." Compare Middle English fret "a tie or lace" (early 14c.), freten (v.) "to bind, fasten" (mid-14c.).

the_jaffa

Ted said:

the_jaffa said:

Nope, fretting was around long before the fretboard. 

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fret

thnak you. So why is the guitar's key note making feature basically called the 'worry-board'?

I think it is down to two (or more) different etymologies ending up with the same spelling and pronunciation by the time it got modern English. If you look down the link I posted also it suggests that fret, in relation to a guitar, could have come from the Latin "fretum" which translates as a channel or strait.

TBH, I always thought it was related to fret saw but had never thought about it before. Amazing what paths lying awake at night can get you to look down.

Sassafras

People get very nervous when I go anywhere near a fretboard.

Kittyfrisk

Just be grateful that it isn't the Frotboard...

Ted

Many thanks for the replies. Itgood that people have unearthed a possible  explanation to the mystery.

dallcorp

Kittyfrisk said:

Just be grateful that it isn't the Frotboard...

Well when you think about it?............it is something you touch with the intention of deriving pleasure? :-)

dallcorp

Gonna have to start thinking about issues of consent the next time I abuse my poor old Tele!