different between bleak vs frigid

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bli?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English bleke (also bleche > English bleach (“pale, bleak”)), and bleike (due to Old Norse), and earlier Middle English blak, blac (“pale, wan”), from Old English bl?c, bl??, bl?c (“bleak, pale, pallid, wan, livid; bright, shining, glittering, flashing”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish”), from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). Cognate with Dutch bleek (“pale, wan, pallid”), Low German blek (“pale”), German bleich (“pale, wan, sallow”), Danish bleg (“pale”), Swedish blek (“pale, pallid”), Norwegian Bokmål bleik, blek (“pale”), Norwegian Nynorsk bleik (“pale”), Faroese bleikur (“pale”), Icelandic bleikur (“pale, pink”).

Adjective

bleak (comparative bleaker, superlative bleakest)

1. Without color; pale; pallid.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead.

2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
   • 1793, William Wordsworth, Descriptive Sketches

     Wastes too bleak to rear / The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
3. Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.

Synonyms

• (sickly pale): see also Thesaurus:pallid

Derived terms

• bleaken

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bleke (“small river fish, bleak, blay”), perhaps an alteration (due to English bl?c (“bright”) or Old Norse bleikja) of Old English bl??e (“bleak, blay, gudgeon”); or perhaps from a diminutive of Middle English *bleye (“blay”), equivalent to blay +? -ock or blay +? -kin. See blay.

Noun

bleak (plural bleaks or bleak)

1. A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.

Synonyms

• ablet
• alburn
• blay

Derived terms

• sunbleak

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Balke, Blake, Kaleb, blake

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fr?gidus (“cold”), from fr?ge? (“I am cold”), from fr?gus (“cold, coldness”), from Proto-Indo-European *sriges-, *sriHges-.

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?j'?d, IPA^(key): /?f??d??d/
• Rhymes: -?d??d

Adjective

frigid (comparative frigider or more frigid, superlative frigidest or most frigid)

1. Very cold; lacking warmth; icy.
2. Chilly in manner; lacking affection or zeal; impassive.
3. (colloquial) Sexually unresponsive, especially of a woman.

Antonyms

• fervid

Related terms

• frigidity
• frigidly
• frigidness

Translations

References

• frigid in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• frigid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Danish

Adjective

frigid

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Inflection

Related terms

• frigiditet

References

• “frigid” in Den Danske Ordbog

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [f?i??i?t]
• Hyphenation: fri?git

Adjective

frigid (comparative frigider, superlative am frigidesten)

1. Alternative form of frigide

Declension

Further reading

• “frigid” in Duden online

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French frigide, Latin frigidus. See also frig.

Adjective

frigid m or n (feminine singular frigid?, masculine plural frigizi, feminine and neuter plural frigide)

1. frigid

Declension

Related terms

• frigiditate
• frig