frock

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English frok, also spelt frogge,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French froc (“monk's habit; gown, mantle”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} with the Anglo-Norman spellings frock and frogge.^[4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1136, for a coat or tunic and for a monk's woollen habit with large open sleeves.^[9] Most dictionaries take the French word, with French f in place of a Germanic h, from a Germanic word, probably Frankish *hroc,^{[4][6][8][10][11]} from Proto-Germanic *hrukkaz;^[1][11] its relatives are Old Frisian hrok, Old Saxon hrokk and Old High German hroc (“mantle, coat”),^[4][6][3] and, in forms without the initial h, Old English rocc, Old Norse rokkr and German Rock (“coat”).^{[4][5][10][11]} The OED leaves the source as an unattested Frankish or Old Dutch word, and suggests that the irregular variation between forms with and without the initial h points to a borrowing from a substrate language.^[4] Kroonen notes that the French word was later taken into German as Frack, and he rejects the comparison with Old Irish rucht (“jacket, tunic”),^[11] which Klein and Merriam-Webster Unabridged make.^[10][3] Etymonline calls the French word of unknown origin and mentions a theory that traces it to Medieval Latin floccus, from floccus (“tuft of wool”),^[5] as Skeat did.^[12] The OED explains the Medieval Latin forms hroccus, recorded from the 9th century, and froccus as borrowings from Germanic, and the forms spelt with fl as reshaped after the classical Latin word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long outer garment with loose sleeves worn by monks: 1350, in the account rolls of Durham Abbey, which list ij frokkes.^[4][2] Barnhart and Etymonline also date the word to 1350 or the mid-14th century.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word first meant a long coat or tunic, a sense close to that of its Old High German relative, and that it survives in frock coat; because the frock once stood for the priest's office, a priest who was dismissed was unfrocked.^[13] The Oxford Dictionary of English likewise sees the original sense, a priest's or monk's gown, preserved in defrock, recorded from the late 16th century.^[14] From 1589 the word stood for the priestly life itself, as in to take the frock, to become a monk or priest.^[4] About 1400 it was used of a long coat or tunic in general,^[4] and since the 1530s it has been used of a garment worn by women and girls,^{[4][5][6][13]} now chiefly British for a dress.^[4][15] Workers' and peasants' loose overgarments were frocks from 1596, the smock frock,^[4] and in Nottinghamshire and Sussex dialect a frock was still a labourer's smock or a miner's or mason's blouse in the 19th century.^[16] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a dress or a coat, quoting Hamlet and Milton.^[17] Later senses are a coat of mail (1658), a man's informal coat (1719), a sailor's woollen jersey (1796) and the long-skirted frock coat,^[4][3] which Etymonline records by 1819.^[5] In 1919 H. Wilson's diary used frocks scornfully for the civilian, as opposed to military, leaders of the First World War.^[4] Weekley compared the wide range of senses with that of gown.^[18]

Timeline

• 1350 – a long gown with loose sleeves worn by monks or priests.^[4][2][6]
• c. 1400 – a long coat, tunic or mantle (now historical).^[4]
• 1531 – a one-piece garment for a woman or girl, a dress.^[4] Barnhart dates this sense to 1538.^[6]
• 1589 – the priestly office, as in to take the frock.^[4]
• 1596 – a loose overgarment worn by workers and peasants, a smock frock.^[4]
• 1610 – verb, to dress someone in a frock.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart date the verb to 1828.^[3][6]
• 1658 – a coat of mail.^[4]
• 1719 – a man's informal coat.^[4]
• 1796 – a thick woollen jersey worn by sailors.^[4]
• 1845 – verb, to ordain as a priest.^[4]
• 1869 – a man's double-breasted long-skirted coat, a frock coat.^[4]
• 1913 – to frock up, to dress up for an occasion, chiefly in Australia.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman's or girl's dress; chiefly British: She wore a cotton frock to the garden party.^[15][4][3]
2. The long loose outer garment of a monk or friar; a habit.^[15][3][4]
3. The office or status of a priest, as in to take the frock.^[4][19]
4. A loose outer garment worn by workers and peasants; a smock frock.^[15][3][4]
5. A woollen jersey worn by sailors.^[3][4]
6. A frock coat, or a military coat of similar cut.^[3][4]
7. A coat of mail.^[3][4]

Verb

1. To dress someone in a frock: The bridesmaids were frocked in pale green.^[3][4]
2. To make someone a cleric; to ordain.^[3][4][15]
3. frock up (informal, chiefly Australian): to dress up for an occasion.^[4]

Word family

• frockless
• underfrock
• defrock
• disfrock
• unfrock
• frock coat
• smock frock

Related words

• rochet

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
19. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press