frigate

Etymology

It is borrowed from French frégate,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from the 1520s,^[3] from Italian fregata,^[2][3][5][4] also fragata;^[2][7] Etymonline and Klein give a form Neapolitan fregate.^[3][8] The word is common to the Mediterranean languages: Spanish fragata, Portuguese fragata and Catalan fragata.^[2][3] Its ultimate origin is unknown.^{[2][3][6][7][9][10]} The OED notes that Diez's proposal, Late Latin fabricāta (“a building”) (compare bâtiment (“building; ship”)), is generally rejected by scholars.^[2] Klein and Partridge derive it from Ancient Greek ἄφρακτος (áphraktos, “unfenced; undecked”), said of ships, Partridge through Latin aphractum, whose plural was taken as a singular.^[8][11] Weekley notes that, like many other names of ships, it is of obscure origin, and that its forms run curiously parallel to those of regatta.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A light, swift vessel, at first built for rowing and later for sailing: 1585, in T. Washington's translation of Nicolay's Navigations.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1583.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the word was applied to ever larger types of ship over the years.^[3][9] From 1624, in John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia, it could mean a merchant ship,^[2][7] and a warship from 1630;^[2] in the Royal Navy a frigate became the class of vessel next below the ship of the line, carrying from 28 to 60 guns.^[2][7][14] Such ships usually carried guns on a raised quarterdeck and forecastle, whence frigate-built (1650s) for a ship of that build.^[3] Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book (1867) adds that the English were the first to take these Mediterranean vessels onto the ocean and to arm them for war as well as trade, and that the name had by then been stretched to ships of up to 7,000 tons.^[14] In the 20th century the name passed to an escort warship used against submarines;^[7][13] in Britain it is smaller than a destroyer, while in the United States it was formerly larger than one.^[10][7] The seabird, the frigatebird, is named from 1738;^[2] Weekley notes that this name replaced the earlier man-of-war bird.^[12] In 17th-century slang a frigate was also a woman.^[15]

Timeline

• 1585 – a light, swift vessel, rowed or sailed (now poetic).^[2][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1583.^[13]
• 1624 – a merchant ship (obsolete).^[2][7]
• 1630 – a warship.^[2]
• 1650s – frigate-built.^[3]
• 1655 – slang, a woman.^[15]
• 1738 – the frigatebird.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A modern warship used mainly for escort, anti-submarine and patrol duties, in the British navy smaller than a destroyer: Two frigates escorted the convoy.^[13][10][7]
2. In the United States, formerly, a warship larger than a destroyer and smaller than a cruiser.^[10][7]
3. (historical) A fast square-rigged sailing warship of the 18th and 19th centuries, next in size below a ship of the line and carrying from 28 to 60 guns.^{[10][7][13][2]}
4. A frigatebird.^[2][7]
5. (poetic) A light, swift vessel, at first rowed and later sailed.^[2][7][13]
6. (obsolete, 1624–1894) A fast-sailing merchantman.^[2][7]

Related words

• frigatebird

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com