from

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English from, inherited from Old English from, earlier fram,^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *fram,^[1][6] cognate with Old Saxon fram, Old High German fram and Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌼 (fram, “from, forward”), and with Old Norse frá (“from”) beside fram (“forward”).^{[2][3][4][7][6]} The Old English word was also an adverb meaning "forward, forth, away",^[2][5] and an adjective fram meant "valiant, stout, bold".^[8][4] Related are fremian (“to promote, accomplish”), whence frame,^[4] and forma (“first”).^[7] Hoad analyses the Germanic word as the base of pro- with a suffix -m,^[3] and Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *promo-, a suffixed form of *pro, from the root *per- (“forward”);^[4][2] the same formation is seen in Ancient Greek πρόμος (prómos, “foremost man, chief”).^[2][3][6][9] Old Norse frá is the source of fro.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marking departure or movement away from a place or person: Old English fram, about 700, with from recorded before 800;^[2] the OED's first quotation is from the Parker manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the annal for 874.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The primary Germanic sense was "forward",^[3] as the Old Norse adverb and the comparative Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌼𐌹𐍃 (framis, “farther, further”) still show;^[3][6] by the time the word reached Old English the notion of moving forward had passed into that of moving away.^[9][4] In Old English it already marked the starting point in space and in time, the person or thing left behind, distance and absence, and removal or separation.^[10] Its use with a range of numbers treated as a single number (from ten to twenty boats) is recorded from 1679.^[10] Absence without a word of distance (from home) is now regional, except in that phrase.^[10] The related fro now survives mainly in to and fro.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 700 – fram, away from.^[2]
• before 800 – the form from.^[2]
• Old English – departure or motion away, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[10]
• Old English – the starting point of a period; distance and absence; removal or separation.^[10]
• 1679 – with a numerical range used as a single modifier.^[10]

Meanings

Preposition

1. Marking the place or point where a movement starts: They drove from Leeds to York.^[11][5][10]
2. Marking the start of a period: from Monday to Friday.^[11][10]
3. Marking distance or separation: ten miles from the coast.^[11][10]
4. Marking the lower limit of a range: tickets from five pounds.^[11][10]
5. Marking the source or origin: a letter from her aunt.^[11][5]
6. Marking the model or basis: drawn from memory.^[11]
7. Marking removal, separation or exclusion: She took the book from the shelf.^[10]
8. With a gerund, marking prevention or restraint: The rain kept us from going out.^[11]

Word family

• therefrom
• wherefrom

Related words

• fro
• frame
• for
• fore
• first
• former
• before

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins