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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL6 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Frank”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
FrankEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English Frank, partially from Old English Franca (“a Frank”); and partially from Old French Franc, and/or Latin Francus (“a Frank”), from Frankish *Franko (“a Frank”); both maybe from Proto-Germanic *frankô (“javelin”). Cognate with Old High German Franko (“a Frank”), Old English franca (“spear, javelin”). Compare Saxon, ultimately a derivative of Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“knife, dagger”). Doublet of franc, frank, and farang.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗FrankEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
The surname derives from the medieval tribal name. The given name is also a form of Francis, with formal given name status since the 19th century.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗frankEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English frank, from Old French franc (“free”), in turn from the name of an early Germanic confederation, the Franks, from Proto-West Germanic *frankō (“javelin, spear”). Doublet of Frank, franc, and farang.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗frankEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Clipping of frankfurter.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗frankEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
From Old French franc.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗frankEnglish (en) · Etymology 5Source text
From French franc.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Chambers (1908)
1908- FrankEnglish · e-38538-2222
Frank, frangk, adj. free, open: (obs.) liberal: open or candid in expression: (Spens.) unrestrained.—v.t. to send free of expense, as a letter.—n. the signature of a person who had the right to frank a letter.—n. Frank′-
Read the full source record → - FrankEnglish · e-38538-2223
Frank, frangk, n. one of the German tribes from Franconia who conquered Gaul in the 5th century, and founded France: the name given in the East to a native of Western Europe.—adj. Frank′ish.
Read the full source record → - FrankEnglish · e-38538-2224
Frank, frangk, n. (Shak.) a pig-sty.—v.t. (Shak.) to shut up in a sty, to cram, to fatten. [O. Fr. franc.]
Read the full source record →
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MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
adjectivecontrarian claim
candid
Open or frank in modern English, inherited through French and Latin from a family of brightness and whiteness.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noundossier summary
candor
Frankness or honest expression, historically a word for brightness, radiance, whiteness, and unstained purity.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗022
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
034
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did candid always mean honest?
No. The first reported English sense is white; clear, pure, fair, honest, frank, and photographic senses develop later.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was candor originally frankness?
Not exclusively. Its earliest English family includes brightness and unstained purity; straightforward honesty becomes the dominant modern sense.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 2
RANK 186GRADE Aranked reveal
Candid was white before it was honest.
English first records candid in the white sense. Brightness and unblemished clarity later support fairness, frankness, and honest expression.
RANK 189GRADE Acontrarian claim
Candor was radiance before frankness.
Latin candor and the earliest English family name brightness, whiteness, or unstained purity before modern honest expression becomes dominant.
040
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “frank.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
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