Freier

See also: freier and fréier

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Freier.

Proper noun

Freier (plural Freiers)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Freier is the 23804^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 1062 individuals. Freier is most common among White (96.14%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Freier”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 602.

German

Alternative forms

• Freyer (obsolete)

Etymology

From freien (“to woo, to exhibit love”). Semantic pejoration is also found, to a lesser extent, in Dutch vrijen (now generally “to have sex”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʁaɪ̯ɐ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Freier m (strong, genitive Freiers, plural Freier, feminine Freierin)

1. john, punter (client of a prostitute)

   Synonyms: Bordellbesucher, Kober

   • 1994, “Willenlos”, performed by Marius Müller-Westernhagen:

     Ihr Name war Fräulein Meyer / Meyer mit Ypsilon / sie schaffte täglich zehn Freier / was für 'ne Kondition

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (archaic) courter (one who woos a woman for marriage)

   Synonyms: Verehrer, Bewerber

   • 1832, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil [Faust, Part Two]‎^[1]:

     Was soll das lüsterne Geleyer? / Du bist ein miserabler Freier, / Stolzirst einher und thust so groß!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• Freier is now expected to be used in the context of prostitution. The old sense of one who seeks marriages is expressed by Heiratskandidat or terms of this kind.

Declension

Declension of Freier [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Freier	die	Freier
genitive	eines	des	Freiers	der	Freier
dative	einem	dem	Freier	den	Freiern
accusative	einen	den	Freier	die	Freier

Descendants

• → Czech: frajer m
• → Hebrew: פראייר m (fráyer)
• → Hungarian: frájer
• → Polish: frajer
• → Russian: фра́ер m (frájer)
• → Serbo-Croatian: фрајер / frajer m
• → Yiddish: פֿרײַער m (frayer)
  • → Polish: frajer
  • → Romanian: fraier
  • → Russian: фраер (frajer)
  • → Hebrew: פראייר (fráier)

Further reading

• “Freier” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Freier” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Freier” in OpenThesaurus.de
• Freier on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• “Freier” in Duden online
• “Freier” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.