frow
/fɹoʊ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.71 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A woman; a wife, especially a Dutch or German one.
noun
Alternative spelling of froe (“cleaving tool”).
Example Sentences
- "Mrs. Frances, a Frow, Daughter to Vanlock"
- "1846, Captain Butler, A Glimpse of the Frontier, and a Gallop through the Cape Colony, W. Harrison Ainsworth (editor), The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, 1846, Part 2, page 466, […] on our way we stopped at several houses, our companions having numerous acquaintances among the young frows, to flirt with after their ungainly fashion. Cape Dutch is not the language for love."
- "that which grows in gravel is subject to be frow, as they term it , and brittle"
Etymology
From Middle Dutch vrouwe (“lady”), from Old Dutch *frōwa, from Proto-West Germanic *frauwjā, from Proto-Germanic *frawjǭ (“lady, mistress”), from Proto-Indo-European *prōw- (“right; judge, master”). Cognate with Dutch vrouw (“woman, wife, lady, mistress”), Low German frouw, frauw (“woman, wife, lady”), German Frau (“woman, wife, lady”), Swedish fru, Icelandic freyja (“lady, mistress”, in compounds), Old English frōwe (“woman”), Old English frēa (“lord, master, husband”). Doublet of frau, vrou, and vrouw.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: vrouwe, *frōwa, *frauwjā, *frawjǭ, *prōw-, frow
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fɹoʊ/
- British English: /fɹəʊ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
frowish