A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1367 entries
fret
A fret is a cold sea fog that comes ashore on the northeast coast of England, most often in late spring and summer, when warm air moves over the cold North Sea and the moisture in it condenses. It rolls in over the coast in a wall, can drop the temperature twenty degrees in minutes, and often stops a mile or two inland, so a beach at fifty degrees and a town at seventy can be within sight of each other.
Etymology
The origin of the word is uncertain. The most common suggestion connects it to the ordinary English fret meaning to gnaw or wear away, which is what a damp wind seems to do. In Scotland and Northumberland, the same fog is a haar, a word from Dutch or Low German for a cold sea mist, and further south it is simply a sea fog.
Notes
A fret is a coastal phenomenon and rarely reaches far inland, since it burns off as the land warms. It is a serious matter for anyone on the water, since it can close visibility to nothing in a few minutes with no warning from the sky.