Fraught

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /fɹɔːt/

Definitions

1. Having a situation or expression heavily filled with emotional tension or worry ; involving or causing feelings of stress and anxiety
2. Describing circumstances laden with strong emotion or apprehension ; marked by or generating nervousness or concern
3. Being full of emotional strain or sensitive feelings ; pertaining to or producing trouble and unease

Etymology: The adjective "fraught" began as a shipping term. Middle English "fraught" meant a cargo, or the charge for carrying it, and "fraughten" was the verb for loading a vessel. The word came into English from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German "vracht", a trade word for freight, and it belongs to a family that includes German "Fracht" and Swedish "frakt". Its older Germanic root meant something like "possessions" or "property", so the sense of goods being carried is a later narrowing of a broader idea of what one has. The emotional sense grew out of the participle. "Fraught" was once simply the past participle of "fraughten", so it meant "loaded" or "burdened", and a ship laden with cargo was described as fraught. A load can weigh on a person as well as on a hull, so a situation "fraught with danger" is one loaded with it. The modern meaning of tension and worry is that metaphor of weight, which the original nautical load had already carried.

Synonyms: filled, laden, charged

Antonyms: empty, unladen