frau

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Frau (“woman, wife”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Middle High German vrouwe (“lady, mistress”),^[3][6][7] from Old High German frouwa (“mistress, lady”), recorded from the 9th century,^[3][4][7][8] from Proto-Germanic *frawjōn (“lady”),^[9][3] a feminine formed to the Proto-Germanic word for "lord" seen in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰 (frauja, “lord, master”), Old English frēa (“lord, master”) and Old High German frō (“lord”).^[4][9][10] Its cognates include Old Saxon frūa (“mistress, lady”), Old Norse freyja (“lady”), Middle Dutch vrouwe and Dutch vrouw;^[4][9][3][8] Swedish fru and Danish frue are ultimately from Dutch.^[3] Watkins traces the Germanic word to a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *pro-, an extended form of *per- (“forward”).^[3][7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A married woman, a wife: 1809, in Alexander Wilson's poem Foresters in the Port Folio.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to 1813,^[3] and the 1989 edition of the OED to before 1813.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In English the word has been used mainly of German women, and as a title equal to Mrs before the name of a German married woman, sometimes extended to older unmarried women.^{[8][5][12][4]} As a jocular or slangy word for a wife, of any nationality, it is recorded in Britain from 1821,^[13] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has examples from 1880 on, many of them American.^[14] Merriam-Webster notes that this sense is sometimes disparaging.^[4]

Timeline

• 1809 – a married woman, a wife.^[2][4]
• 1821 – jocular, a wife.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A title used before the surname or professional title of a married woman in a German-speaking country, equal to Mrs: Frau Weber will see you now.^[12][4][8]
2. A German or Austrian woman, especially a married one.^[5][8]
3. (informal) A wife or housewife, sometimes used disparagingly: He brought his frau to the reunion.^[4][14][13]

Related words

• frow
• hausfrau

Usage notes

As a title the word is usually capitalized.^[4][8] Its plural is Frauen, as in German, or Fraus.^[8][5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com