frown

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English frounen,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French froignier (“to frown, scowl, snort, turn up one's nose”),^{[6][7][8][9][2]} also frognier, which survives only in French renfrogner and refrogner.^{[6][10][8][7]} The French verb is a derivative of froigne (“scowling look, surly expression”),^[8][5][11] which is held to be of Celtic origin,^{[8][10][11][3]} probably from Gaulish *frognā (“nostril”),^{[12][5][7][13]} and related to Welsh ffroen (“nostril”), Middle Breton froan (“nostril”) and Old Irish srón (“nose”).^[3][4][5] Dictionary.com takes these back to Proto-Celtic *srognā.^[5] The OED calls the French verb of obscure origin,^[6] and Skeat derived it instead from a Germanic source, comparing Scandinavian dialect verbs meaning to make a wry face.^[14] The noun is from the verb, though the OED compares the Old French noun froigne.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To knit the brows, especially in displeasure: about 1386, in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale.^[6][12][2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto suggests that the underlying idea was snorting rather than wrinkling the brow, since the French verb meant "to snort" as well as "to frown".^[9][7] Middle English had a competing verb, frounce, for scowling and wrinkling, now obsolete or archaic in that sense.^[12] The sense of showing disapproval, to frown on or upon someone, is recorded from 1576,^[6][7] the noun for a show of disapproval from 1581, in Mulcaster,^[6][3] and the noun for a wrinkled brow from Shakespeare's King Lear (1608 in the OED, 1605 in Barnhart).^[6][12] Barnhart also finds the noun, of lowering clouds, before 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[12] From 1642 the verb was used of things that look gloomy or threatening,^[6] In 1678 Dryden used it for driving someone away or down by a frown.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a wrinkled look; a look of displeasure".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – to knit the brows, in Chaucer.^[6][12]
• 1576 – to show disapproval, to frown on or upon.^[6][7]
• 1581 – noun, a sign of disapproval.^[6][3]
• 1608 – noun, a wrinkled brow, in King Lear.^[6] Barnhart dates it to 1605.^[12]
• 1642 – of things, to look gloomy or threatening.^[6]
• 1678 – to drive away or down by frowning.^[6]
• 1775 – to express by a frown.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw the brows together and wrinkle the forehead, in anger, worry or concentration; to scowl: He frowned at the bill.^[16][3][6]
2. frown on or upon: to disapprove of something: The school frowns on mobile phones in class.^[16][3][6]
3. To express a feeling, such as displeasure, by frowning.^[16][6]
4. To silence or drive away by frowning: She frowned the heckler down.^[16][6]
5. Of things, to look gloomy or menacing.^[3][6]

Noun

1. A wrinkling of the brow, as in displeasure or thought; a stern look.^[3][6][15]
2. An expression of disapproval.^[3][6]

Word family

• frowner
• frowningly
• outfrown

Related words

• frounce

References

1. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins