Etymograph

English

Frau

Frau comes from German Frau ‘woman’, from Old High German frouwa ‘mistress’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frawjô ‘lord’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frawjô‘lord’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frawjǭ‘lady, wife of a lord’reconstructedfeminine form of *frawjô
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*frauwjā‘lady, wife of a lord’reconstructed
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050frouwa‘mistress’
  5. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350vrouwe‘woman, lady, madam’
  6. Germanc. 1650–presentFrau‘woman’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1970same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frawjô‘lord’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frawjǭ‘lady, wife of a lord’reconstructedfeminine form of *frawjô
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*frauwjā‘lady, wife of a lord’reconstructed
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050frouwa‘mistress’
  5. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350vrouwe‘woman, lady, madam’
  6. Germanc. 1650–presentFrau‘woman’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1970same form

Earliest quotation: 1970, George Clinton Densmore Odell, Annals of the New York Stage: “G. von Hoffmann’s Die Ochsenmenuette offered Frau von Berckel…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *frawjô

Today it means

noun Used as a courtesy title before the surname of a (typically married) German-speaking woman.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *frawjô / Frau

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