An archaic or dialectal variant meaning to crimp, curl, or frizz hair or fabric.
Related to frizzle or frizz, from Middle English or dialectal Germanic origins. The word likely developed from onomatopoeia describing the sizzling sound of hair being heated or chemically treated.
Many old English words for hair styling have disappeared—'friss' survives in dialect and historical texts, but we've replaced it with simpler words like 'frizz.' It's like watching language evolution in real time: older specialized terms get replaced by simpler, more intuitive ones!
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