Archaic or dialectal term for a friar, a member of a religious order vowed to poverty and service.
From Old French 'frere,' meaning 'brother,' which evolved into the modern English 'friar.' The archaic spelling 'freir' reflects older English phonetic conventions.
The spelling 'freir' shows Middle English before standardization—it's the same word as 'friar,' but spelled how it actually sounded, before dictionaries locked down spelling rules and made English more consistent.
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