Froe
Anne Lambert
annelamb at GNV.FDT.NET
Fri Sep 22 01:07:27 UTC 2000
Incidentally , how do you people pronounce "clapboard"? I tend to
pronounce in /clab:@rd/.
"Douglas G. Wilson" wrote:
>
>
>> thanks to everyone who wrote in regarding 'fro'; had i checked
>> further i
>> could have deduced that fro was a variant of the wellknown words
>> froe and
>> frow, meaning, according to the american heritage second edition
>> college
>> dictionary, 'a cleaving tool having a heavy blade set at right
>> angles to
>> the handle,' (a definition which would mean nothing to all but
>> my best beginning students). the etymology is 'unknown.'
>
>
> The AH 4th ed. (online) shows
>
> ETYMOLOGY: Earlier frower. possibly from froward , turned away (of the
> handle)
>
> M-W and RH agree.
>
> I guess my tentative derivation from "Dutch wife" won't work. (^_^)
>
> -- Doug Wilson
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/20000921/d15beccf/attachment.htm>
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list