Franciscan

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin Franciscānus (“a friar of the order of St Francis”),^[2][3][4] recorded in Erasmus from 1515 and in British sources before 1535.^[2] The Latin word is formed from Franciscus, the name of St Francis of Assisi (1181 or 1182–1226), and -ānus.^[2][5] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it through French franciscain,^[4][6][7] which the OED compares, as a Middle French adjective from before 1544 in the form francisquin.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com instead form it in English from the saint's Medieval Latin name and -an.^[8][9] Partridge groups it with frank, French and the name Francis.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A friar, sister or lay member of the order founded by St Francis of Assisi in 1209: 1534, in an English translation of Erasmus, the Dyaloge Funus.^[2][8] The adjective, of the order of St Francis, follows in 1536, in a sermon of Latimer's.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense; only its scope widened to members of the several orders that follow St Francis's rule, the Friars Minor, the Poor Clares and the tertiaries.^[8][2] The dictionaries date its first use differently: 1534 for the OED and Merriam-Webster,^[2][8] the 1590s for Etymonline and 1585–95 for Dictionary.com,^[11][9] and in the 1989 edition of the OED 1577 for the adjective and 1599 for the noun.^[12] In Britain a Franciscan was also called a Grey Friar.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1534 – noun, a member of the Franciscan order.^[2][8]
• 1536 – adjective, of the order of St Francis.^[2][8]
• 1855 – the derivative Franciscanism.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of one of the Christian religious orders of mendicant friars or nuns founded on the rule of St Francis of Assisi in the early 13th century; a Grey Friar.^[13][8][2]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to St Francis of Assisi, his order or its members: a Franciscan monastery.^[8][15][2]

Word family

• Franciscanism

Related words

• frank
• French

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin