Frances

Frances

See also: francés, francês, francès, and Francés

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɑːnsɪs/, /ˈfɹɑːnsɪz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹænsɪs/, /ˈfɹænsɪz/

Etymology 1

From French, from Old French Franceise, feminine form of Franceis, from Late Latin Franciscus (“Frankish”).

Proper noun

Frances

1. A female given name, feminine form of Francis.
   • c.1590 William Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost: Act III, Scene I:

     Armado. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.

     Costard. O! marry me to one Frances: I smell some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

   • 1883 Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science, Chatto and Windus, page 227:

     "My name is Frances. Don't call me Fanny!" "Why not?" "Because it's too absurd to be endured! What does the mere sound of Fanny suggest? A flirting dancing creature - plump and fair, and playful and pretty! - - - Call me Frances - a man's name, with only the difference between an i and an e. No sentiment in it, hard, like me."

   • 1961 Janet Frame, Owls Do Cry, →ISBN, page 97:

     My other sisters had interesting names. There was Francie, that was Frances, and though she wore slacks and my father seemed angry with her, I thought she was some relation to Saint Francis, who, I believed, kept animals in his pocket and took them out and licked them, the way Francie licked a blackball or acid drop, for pure love.

Related terms

• (variants): Francesca, Francine
• (pet forms): Fannie, Fanny, Fran, Francie, Frannie, Franny

Translations

feminine form of Francis

Catalan: Francesca Czech: Františka (cs) Danish: Francisca French: Françoise (fr) German: Franziska (de) Hungarian: Franciska (hu) Irish: Proinséas f

Italian: Francesca (it) Polish: Franciszka (pl) f Portuguese: Francisca (pt) f Russian: Фра́нсис f (Fránsis), Фра́нсес f (Fránses), Фрэ́нсис (ru) f (Frɛ́nsis), Франци́ска f (Francíska), Франче́ска f (Frančéska), Франсуа́за f (Fransuáza) Slovak: Františka f Spanish: Francisca (es)

Proper noun

Frances

1. plural of France
   • 1967, Eric A. Nordlinger, The Working-class Tories, page 236:

     The malaise of French politics has commonly been interpreted as a product of a deep-seated conflict between the ‘two Frances’.

   • 1998, Shanny Peer, France on Display: Peasants, Provincials, and Folklore →ISBN, page 2:

     Although scholars have offered different chronologies and causalities for the move toward modernity, most have resolved the paradox of the two Frances by placing them in sequence: "diverse France gave way over time as modern centralized France gathered force."

   • 2013, Making Sense of the Secular: Critical Perspectives →ISBN, page 48:

     Was it the end of the long conflict between the two Frances? Yes and no.

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Portuguese

Noun

Frances m (plural Franceses, feminine Francesa, feminine plural Francesas)

1. Obsolete spelling of francês

Adjective

Frances (invariable, comparable)

1. Obsolete spelling of francês