Franke German · revision 35839

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=8th century, Old High German glosses|origins=gem-pro *frankô}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈfʁaŋkə/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Franke''' ''m'' (genitive Franken, plural Franken, feminine Fränkin or Frankin)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|Franke]], [[inh|goh|Franko]], [[inh|gem-pro|*frankô]].^(Wiktionary)^(EWA|3, 520) The same name is [[osx|Franko]], [[gml|Vranke]], [[dum|Vranke]], [[ang|Francan|t=Franks]] and [[non|Frakkar|t=Franks]], and the English word is [[m|en|Frank]].^(EWA|3, 520) The tribe is named from the 3rd century AD on by classical writers as [[la|Franci]], singular [[m|la|Francus]], and [[grc|Φράγγοι|tr=Phrángoi]].^(EWA|3, 520) The Old High German weak noun cannot itself be the source of the Latin plural, which would then have been latinised with an n-stem.^(EWA|3, 520)

+

+ The origin of the name is disputed.^(Kluge 2011|314)^(Pfeifer 1993) Kluge takes it from an old Germanic adjective meaning “free”, the source of [[frank]], so that the Franks were “the free ones”, perhaps those who resisted the northern tribes moving in.^(Kluge 2011|314) Pfeifer also starts from that adjective, but if it is related to [[frech]] “bold” the Franks called themselves “the bold ones”; they formed the free upper class of the Frankish kingdom beside the dependent Gallo-Roman population, and that is where the Old French sense “free” arose.^(Pfeifer 1993) Others connect the name with [[ang|franca|t=javelin]] and [[non|frakka|t=spear]], so that the Franks were the people armed with this spear, as the Saxons have been explained from the [[gem-pro|*sahsą|t=knife, short sword]].^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Wiktionary) Wiktionary gives the Germanic word as of unknown origin, and notes that [[la|framea|t=a kind of javelin]] is often compared.^(Wiktionary) The Grimms already linked the name with both [[frei]] and the adjective for “bold”.^(DWB|4, 57)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''Franko'' is recorded from the 8th century in glosses and then in the Ludwigslied, the Würzburg boundary descriptions and Otfrid's Gospel book.^(EWA|3, 520)^(Köbler AHD) In the plural it is the name of the people, in the singular a personal name or a single member of the tribe, and Otfrid also has ''in Frankōn'' “in the land of the Franks”.^(EWA|3, 520)^(Schützeichel 2012|112) In Middle High German ''Franke'' appears from the Annolied (1077–1081) on.^(Köbler MHD)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ With time the plain name stuck to the Franks who had stayed in Germany on the Rhine and Main, while those who had moved into Gaul came to be called [[Franzose|alt=Franzosen]]; poets still used ''Franke'' for the French, as Goethe and Schiller did.^(DWB|4, 57) Adelung explains the second main sense: because the Franks under French rule were prominent in the Crusades, all European Christians in the East were called ''Franken'' from the time of Godfrey of Bouillon.^(Adelung 1793) He also records the regional form ''Frank'' without the final ''-e''.^(Adelung 1793) Today the word chiefly means a person from [[Franken]] (Franconia) in northern Bavaria, the region named after the tribe.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 3rd century AD – The tribal name appears in Latin and Greek writers.^(EWA|3, 520)

+ * 8th century – Old High German ''Franko'' is recorded in glosses.^(Köbler AHD)^(EWA|3, 520)

+ * 863–871 – Otfrid writes of the ''Frankon'' in his Gospel book.^(Köbler AHD)^(AWB)

+ * 1077–1081 – Middle High German ''Franke'' appears in the Annolied.^(Köbler MHD)

+ * c. 1100 – With the Crusades the name spreads to all European Christians in the East.^(Adelung 1793)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(history)'' A [[m|en|Frank]], a member of the West Germanic people of that name.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # An inhabitant or native of [[Franken]], the region of [[m|en|Franconia]] in northern Bavaria: ''Der neue Trainer ist ein gebürtiger Franke.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(history)'' A Frank in the sense of any Western European Christian, as seen from the medieval Islamic world.^(Wiktionary)^(Adelung 1793)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[Fränkin]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Franken]]

+ * [[Frankreich]]

+ * [[Franzose]]

+ * [[französisch]]

+ * [[frank]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}