It's the Word of the Day podcast for May 22nd.

Today's word is Frot, spelled F-R-A-U-G-H-T.

Frot is an adjective. It describes something that causes or involves a lot of emotional

stress or worry. When fraught is used in the phrase fraught with, it means full of something

bad or unwanted. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Chicago Tribune. We might think

replicating one of these ideas will deliver that perfectly

walkable, equitable, sustainable, and prosperous city of our hopeful imagination. Not likely. Many

of these were hard wins, often fraught and contested in their local context. An early instance of the word fraught occurs in the 14th century poem,

Richard Care de Lyon, about England's King Richard I,

also known as Richard the Lionheart.

The line, the Drowmond was so heavy fraught,

that aneith might it sail in aught,

describes a large, fast-sailing ship so heavily fraught that is loaded that it can barely sail.

The poet's use of the word fraught is typical for the time.

Originally, something that was fraught was laden with freight.

For centuries, fraught continued to be used in relation to loaded ships,

but that use is now considered archaic.

These days, fraught is used in reference to situations that are heavy with tension,

emotion, or some other weighty characteristic.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.

Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.