orfray

English

Etymology

From French orfraie. Compare osprey, ossifrage.

Noun

orfray (plural orfrays)

1. (obsolete) The osprey.
2. Alternative spelling of orphrey

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “orfray”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• forray

Middle English

Alternative forms

• orfrei, orefreys, orfreis, orfreys, orfrays, orphray, offrey, orfrey, orfree, orffray

Etymology

From Middle French orfrais, orfreis, orfrois, and other forms, from Late Latin aurifrasium, aurifrisium, and other forms, from Latin aurum Phrygium (“gold embroidery”, literally “Phrygian gold”). In Middle English, the final -s was often reinterpreted as a plural ending.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔrˈfræi̯(s)/, /ˈɔrfræi̯(s)/, /ˈɔrfriː/

Noun

orfray (plural orfrays)

1. Any elaborate embroidery, especially when made of gold thread.
   • c. 1360s (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Romaunt of the Rose”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC, folio cxxxii, recto, column 2:

     Orfrayes freſhe, was her garlande / I whiche haue ſene a thouſande / Saw neuer ywys no garlande yet / So well wrought of ſylke as it

     Her garland was of fresh orphreys; / I, who have seen a thousand of them, / Have indeed never seen a garland / So well wrought of silk as it.

2. A piece of fabric) adorned with such embroidery.
3. Fine embroidered decoration, especially a border or fringe composed of such embroidery.

Descendants

• English: orphrey, orfrey, orphray

References

• “orfrei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-09-15.