the.com/fret
The tiny metal lines that turn fumbling fingers into something resembling music.
means A ridge across a guitar or similar instrument's neck that marks where to press a string to get a specific note, or — in its older, grumpier sense — to worry persistently.
from Two different words collided into one spelling. The musical 'fret' probably comes from Old French 'frete,' meaning a ferrule or band — something that binds or encircles, fitting since early frets were actual cords tied around the neck. The worrying 'fret' is the older English sense, from Old English 'fretan,' meaning to devour or eat away at — the same root gives us the idea of something gnawing at your peace of mind. So a guitar's frets and a fretful mind share a spelling by accident, not ancestry, though both involve something pressing on you from the inside.
- etymology
- from old word meaning to gnaw or eat away
- placement math
- spaced by the twelfth root of two
- fretless cousins
- violins trust your ear instead
- double meaning
- also means worrying, which guitarists do plenty of