Franks - Etymology

Etymology

The name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts and Suebi the Franks must have seemed alike: they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known and within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original tribes. The older tribal names have sometimes survived in place-names: Hesse originates from the Chatti tribe.

Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English. The word has a range of meanings, all of which have been proposed at one time as the basis for the name Frank. One theory suggests that the meaning of 'free' was adopted because after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. Other theories propose that Frank comes from the Germanic word for 'javelin' (such as in Old English franca and Old Norse frakka): the Latin word francisca ('throwing axe') may have been named after the tribe. Words in other Germanic languages meaning 'bold' or 'fierce' (Middle Dutch vrac, Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr) may be significant. Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper insida mobilitas? ("Where now is that famed ferocity of yours, that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Feroces was used often to describe the Franks.

Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. A formulary written by Marculf in around 700 described a continuation of national identities within a mixed population when it stated that "all the peoples who dwell, Franks, Romans, Burgundians, and those of other nations, live... ...according to their law and their custom." Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-seventh century at the latest; Romani were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that".