fro

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fro, in the North and in Scotland fra,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Norse frá (“from”).^{[5][2][6][7][4]} Fro and the native word from are thus doublets.^[5][2] Gersum notes that attempts to derive it from the native fram have not convinced.^[4] The Old Norse word goes back to Proto-Germanic *fram,^[4] the source also of the Old English word, of Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌼 (fram, “forward; from”), Old Saxon fram and Old High German fram.^[8] Etymonline traces it further to Proto-Indo-European *pro-, an extended form of *per- (“forward”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a preposition meaning "from", in the Ormulum of about 1175,^[5] where it is also a conjunction, "from the time that".^[5] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200,^[2] and Barnhart the preposition to probably before 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English fro could stand for from in all its senses;^[5] Barnhart notes the Northern form fra and the Midland form fro, both from about 1325 as adverbs.^[3] The adverb, "away, in a direction apart", is recorded from Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393), and has since survived chiefly in to and fro.^[5][9] Johnson (1755) already said it was used only together with to, in the phrase meaning backward and forward.^[10] As a preposition it is now only Scottish and dialectal;^[7][11] the English Dialect Dictionary records it in general dialect use in Scotland and the northern counties down to Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, and in Devon, in forms such as frae, fra, fray and vro.^[12] The conjunction, "from the time that, as soon as", is now Scottish too,^[5] and a Scots use meaning "since, because" lasted from 1584 to 1830.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – preposition, from; conjunction, from the time that.^[5]
• before 1325 – adverb, away, in the Northern form fra, and about 1325 as fro.^[3]
• before 1393 – adverb, away, in a direction apart, in Gower.^[5]
• 1584 – Scots conjunction, since, because (obsolete by 1830).^[5]
• 1755 – Johnson records it only in to and fro.^[10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. to and fro: back and forth; first one way and then the other: The branches swayed to and fro in the wind.^[11][13]
2. (archaic) Away; back or backward.^[11][13]

Preposition

1. (Scotland and dialect) from.^[11][7]

Word family

• froward
• to and fro

Related words

• from

Usage notes

A separate fro, also spelt 'fro, is a short form of Afro, recorded from the early 1970s.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House