To hire a ship or part of a ship's cargo space for transporting goods.
From Middle Dutch 'vracht' (freight) with the prefix 'a-' added. The word entered English in the 1400s through maritime trade with the Low Countries.
This word is still used in modern shipping law and international commerce—when companies talk about 'affreighting' vessels, they're using a 500-year-old maritime term without even realizing it.
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