*frankô

Reconstruction

The noun is *frankô in Wiktionary,^[1] *frankōn in Orel,^[2] and *frankō-, also *frankōn or *frankan, in Köbler.^[3] EWA writes *frankan-.^[4]

Etymology

Köbler and Wiktionary call it of unknown origin, and Orel finds it unclear.^[3][1][2]

Morphology

A masculine n-stem.^[3] The daughters differ in gender: Old Norse frakka is feminine beside masculine frakki, and Old English franca is masculine.^[2][5]

Evidence

The word for the weapon is attested only in North Germanic and Old English: Old Norse frakka and frakki, the latter only in compounds such as ryðfrakki (“rusty javelin”), and Old English franca.^[4] A runic Norwegian genitive plural f[r]ąknA stands on the Eggja stone of about 700.^[4][5] Orel and Köbler list no Gothic or continental West Germanic form of it.^[2][3]

Competing analyses

Wiktionary notes that a PIE *preng- "pole, stalk" could be reconstructed mechanically, but without cognates outside Germanic, and that Latin framea (“a kind of javelin”) is often connected.^[1] Torp took the word from *framkan and joined it to that Latin-Germanic word,^[6][2] while Orel compares Old Norse furkr (“spear”).^[2] Petersson, as de Vries reports, saw the word as a weapon name and put it with Old Saxon fercal (“bolt”).^[5]

How it relates to the name of the Franks is disputed.^[4][5] One view takes the people's name from the weapon, as the Saxons are named after the Old High German sahs (“sword”); the other takes the weapon from the people's name, so that franca would be "the Frankish weapon", as Falk argued.^[4][5] EWA rejects the comparison with Medieval Latin francisca (“Frankish battle-axe”), which has a suffix that franca lacks, and notes that no Old English passage connects the word with the Franks.^[4] De Vries thought the Old Norse word perhaps borrowed from Old English.^[5] Köbler sets up the name of the Franks as a separate word of the same form,^[3] while Wiktionary gives both senses under one entry.^[1]

Meanings

1. spear, javelin^[1][3]
2. a Frank, a member of the Frankish confederation^[1]

Old English used the word for "lance, spear",^[7] and Old Norse for "javelin, dart".^[2]

Reflexes

• Old Norse: frakka (“javelin”), beside frakki^[5]
• Old English: franca (“lance, spear”)^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *frankô
2. ^ a b c d e f g Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *frankōn
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *frankō-
4. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. Franko
5. ^ a b c d e f g de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. frakka
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 246
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. franca