frounce

English

WOTD – 26 November 2012

Etymology

From Middle English frouncen, from Old French froncir "to wrinkle, frown", from Frankish *hrunkiju (“a wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkijō, *hrunkitō (“fold, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).

Akin to Old High German runza "fold, wrinkle, crease" (German Runzel "wrinkle"), Middle Dutch ronse "frown", Old Norse hrukka "wrinkle, crease" (Icelandic hrukka "wrinkle, crease, ruck"). More at ruck₂.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɹaʊns/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊns

Noun

frounce (plural frounces)

1. A canker in the mouth of a hawk.
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 64, lines 83–85:

     The hawke had no lyst
     To come to his fyst;
     She loked as she had the frounce; […]

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 85:

     I say that the eyass should have her meat unwashed, until she becomes a brancher—’twere the ready way to give her the frounce, to wash her meat sooner, and so knows every one who knows a gled from a falcon.

2. A plait or curl.

Translations

canker in the mouth of hawk

• Finnish: trikomonoosi (fi)

Verb

frounce (third-person singular simple present frounces, present participle frouncing, simple past and past participle frounced)

1. (rare, transitive, intransitive) To curl.
   • 1879, Harmon Seeley Babcock, "The Peanut Man", in Trifles, Providence Press Company (1879), page 43:

     Beard untrimmed by barber's shears,

     Hair all frouncing 'bout his ears,

   • 1887, Julian Corbett, For God and Gold, Macmillan and Co, page 214:

     As though to give him a warlike note, his clothes were thrown on in a slovenly way, and his moustache frounced out so shock and bristling that it seemed from each hair-end a crackling oath must start with every word he said.

   • 1888, Charles M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, volume 1, Cambridge, page 498:

     Under the day-long beating of the sun their brow is frounced out, […]

   • 1983, Carolly Erickson, The First Elizabeth, St. Martin's Griffin, published 1997, →ISBN, page 307:

     The unruly, shoulder-length hair of the redeemed made a strong contrast to the well-tended coiffures of fashionable men, who "frounced their hair with curling irons" and wore long "love locks" tied with ribbons or silk favors.

   • 2012, Carolyn Meyer, The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen of Scots, Harcourt, published 2012, →ISBN, page 107:

     My hairdresser stopped coming. Fortunately, my friend Seton had always enjoyed frouncing my hair, and she readily took up the responsibility, fixing my hair in a different style every day.

2. (rare) To crease, wrinkle, to frown.
   • 1871, George Mac-Henry, Time and Eternity: A Poem, A L Bancroft and Company (1871), page 42:

     He frounced his brow, and from his scornful eye

     Shot wrath indignant, and disdain and pride,

   • 1885 December, “The Old Corner Shop: A Story of Very Poor Humanity”, in The Phrenological Magazine:

     Mury, however, frounced her brows, and made Sir Tyke Winchap's niece a profound courtesy behind her back.

   • 2000, Patrick Madden, "Down on Batlle's Farm", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Volume 33, Number 2, Summer 2000, page 160:

     "But they know who you are?" I asked, and frounced my brow in skeptical doubt.

3. To gather into or adorn with plaits, as a dress.

Translations

to curl — see curl

to crease, wrinkle — see frown

Anagrams

• unforce

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ffrownce, fronce, frownce

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French fronce, from Old French fronce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfruːns(ə)/

Noun

frounce (plural frounces)

1. A wrinkle, fold, or pleat (in fabric, hair, or porcelain).
2. A disease involving mouth sores in birds of prey.
3. (figuratively) A grimace; a scornful look.

Derived terms

• frounceles

Related terms

• frouncen

Descendants

• English: frounce

References

• “frǒunce, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “frǒunce, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.