To fret is to worry or be concerned.

// I was sure we wouldn’t get there in time, but they told me not to fret.

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“Many communal laundry spaces have rules posted, but over time, they can get lost, forgotten or ignored. If you find yourself in uncertain waters about how to be a good neighbor, don’t fret. We asked laundry and etiquette experts for their best tips on how to handle some of the most common faux pas.” — Sophia Solano, The Washington Post, 22 Aug. 2024

Fret not about being unfamiliar with the history of the verb fret; we’ve got something for you to chew on. While fretting today usually involves a concern that is figuratively eating at someone, fret has older senses that apply to literal eating. Fret comes from the Old English verb fretan, “to devour,” which shares an ancestor with another verb, etan, the ancestor of eat. In centuries past, animals—or monsters, in the case of Grendel—were said to fret, as were substances that corrode, or eat away, at other substances. But it wasn’t long before fret was also applied to emotional experiences, as when someone frets over an all-consuming thought or trouble. While fret still carries the meanings of “to corrode,” “to fray,” and “to chafe,” among others, one is most likely to encounter its more angsty sense of “to worry or be concerned.”