frøken

See also: fröken

Danish

Etymology

From Middle Low German vrouweken, vrouken, a diminutive of vrouwe, vruwe, from Old Saxon frūa.

Cognate with German Frau (“woman”), Dutch vrouwe (“lady”), vrouw (“woman”) (Danish frue, fru and Swedish fru are borrowed from Low German). For the semantic development of the diminutive, compare German Fräulein (“Ms.”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /frøːˀkən/, [ˈfʁ̥œˀɡ̊ŋ̩], (pretonic) [fʁ̥œɡ̊ŋ̩]

Noun

frøken c (singular definite frøkenen or (unofficial) frøknen, plural indefinite frøkener or frøkner)

1. (dated) Miss, miss (an unmarried woman)

Inflection

Declension of frøken

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	frøken	frøkenen (unofficial) frøknen	frøkener frøkner	frøkenerne frøknerne
genitive	frøkens	frøkenens (unofficial) frøknens	frøkeners frøkners	frøkenernes frøknernes

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German vroiken, vrouken.

Noun

frøken m or f (definite singular frøkenen or frøkna, indefinite plural frøkner, definite plural frøknene)

1. Miss, miss (an unmarried woman)
2. a female teacher

Usage notes

Historically only used for unmarried daughters of the nobility, later also daughters of civil servants and the higher bourgeoisie (compare with jomfru which was generally used for daughters of the bourgeoisie in the early modern period), commonly adopted for all unmarried women in the 20th century. Rarely used in daily conversations since around 1970. Compare usage history of Swedish fröken and Danish frøken.

References

• “frøken” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Middle Low German vroiken, vrouken.

Noun

frøken f (definite singular frøkna, indefinite plural frøkner, definite plural frøknene)

1. Miss, miss (an unmarried woman)
2. a female teacher

Usage notes

Historically only used for unmarried daughters of the nobility, later also daughters of civil servants and the higher bourgeoisie (compare with jomfru which was generally used for daughters of the bourgeoisie in the early modern period), commonly adopted for all unmarried women in the 20th century. Rarely used in daily conversations since around 1970. Compare usage history of Swedish fröken and Danish frøken.

References

• “frøken” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.