different between frolick vs frolic

English

Adjective

frolick (comparative more frolick, superlative most frolick)

1. Archaic form of frolic.

Noun

frolick (plural frolicks)

1. Archaic form of frolic.

Verb

frolick (third-person singular simple present frolicks, present participle frolicking, simple past and past participle frolicked)

1. Archaic form of frolic.

English

Alternative forms

• frolick

Etymology

From Dutch vrolijk (“cheerful”), from Middle Dutch vrolijc, from Old Dutch fr?l?k, from Proto-Germanic *frawal?kaz. Compare German fröhlich (“blitheful, gaily, happy, merry”).

The first element, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frawaz, is cognate with Middle English frow (“hasty”); the latter element, ultimately from *-l?kaz, is cognate with -ly, -like.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??l?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??l?k/
• Rhymes: -?l?k
• Hyphenation: frol?ic

Adjective

frolic (comparative more frolic, superlative most frolic)

1. (now rare) Merry, joyous, full of mirth; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief. [from 1530s]
   • 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro” in Poems, London: Humphrey Moseley, p. 31,^[1]

     The frolick wind that breathes the Spring,

     Zephyr with Aurora playing,

     As he met her once a Maying

     There on Beds of Violets blew,

   • 1682, Edmund Waller, “Of Love” in Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons, London: H. Herringman, 5th edition, 1686, p. 73,^[2]

     For women, born to be controul’d,

     Stoop to the forward and the bold,

     Affect the haughty and the proud,

     The gay, the frollick, and the loud.
2. (obsolete, rare) Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.

Verb

frolic (third-person singular simple present frolics, present participle frolicking, simple past and past participle frolicked)

1. (intransitive) To make merry; to have fun; to romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly. [from 1580s]

2. (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.

Inflection

Derived terms

• rollick

Translations

Noun

frolic (plural frolics)

1. Gaiety; merriment. [from 1610s]
   • 1832-1888, Louisa May Alcott

     the annual jubilee […] filled the souls of old and young with visions of splendour, frolic and fun.

   • 2012 (original 1860), Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun - Page 276:

     By the old-fashioned magnificence of this procession, it might worthily have included his Holiness in person, with a suite of attendant Cardinals, if those sacred dignitaries would kindly have lent their aid to heighten the frolic of the Carnival.

2. A playful antic.
   • 1680, James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, Art of Poetry

     He would be at his frolic once again.

3. (obsolete, chiefly US) A social gathering.

Translations

See also

• cavort

Related terms

• frolicsome

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “frolic”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN