Re: "Wife" (was: Homosexuality etc.)

Joe wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Isaac Penzev" <isaacp@...>
> To: <CONLANG@...>
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 12:55 PM
> Subject: Re: "Wife" (was: Homosexuality etc.)
>
> > Andreas Johansson wråt:
> >
> >
> > > This appear to be common for words refering to women; another case is
> _fru_
> > > which used to mean "lady" (=wife of a high-ranking nobleman - not just
> any
> > > woman of noble blood), but now is "wife". German _Frau_, of course,
> means
> > > simply "woman". The feminists probably has something to say about this
> ...
> >
> > Does somebody know the Proto-Germanic and/or Old Englisc form of the word
> _Frau_
> > (pls specify vowel length, gender and type of stem)?
>
> The PG would have been "frú", I think.  I think it was lost in OE, but it
> would have been feminine, and, while I'm not sure, I would have expected it
> to be a u-stem.
>
from
A concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary
J.R. Clark Hall

OE frówe . f.  woman

long o if it doesn't come through clearly.


David Barrow

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