From Middle English affraien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman afrayer and Old French effreer, esfreer ("to disturb, remove the peace from") (compare modern French effrayer), from Vulgar Latin *exfrido or from es- + freer, from Frankish , from Proto-Germanic *friþuz, from *frijōną ("to free; to love"), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- ("to like, love").

• IPA: /əˈfɹeɪ/

affray (affrays, present participle affraying; simple past and past participle affrayed)

1. (archaic, transitive) To startle from quiet; to alarm.
2. (archaic, transitive) To frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene v]:

     That voice doth us affray.

• afraid

affray

1. The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
   • 2015, 8 November, "Rugby league journalist Gary Carter critically ill after Bethnal Green attack", BBC News

     A 22-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the incident for affray towards attending paramedics.

2. A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
3. The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.

   The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder.

4. (obsolete) Terror.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     full of ghastly fright and cold affray

• fray, brawl
• alarm, terror, fright

• fray#Etymology_2

• Italian: rissa
• Portuguese: briga, rixa, desordem, tumulto, motim