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Frances

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: francés, francês, francès, and Francés

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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

Proper noun

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Frances

  1. A female given name from Latin, masculine equivalent Francis.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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.
    • 2023 May 27, Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, “Elon Musk pulled Twitter from the EU's anti-disinformation agreement and continues to troll with alt-right memes and dogwhistles. It could be a sign he'll close the site to Europe completely”, in Business Insider‎[1], archived from the original on 4 August 2023:
      The DSA became a legislative priority for the European Commission after the 2021 Facebook leak, when whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed Facebook and its parent company Meta knowingly prioritized profit over addressing rampant disinformation and racist hate speech on the platform.
  2. (rare) A male given name, variant of Francis.
    • 2024 September 6, Jordan Valinsky, “Ticket prices for the all-American men’s matchup at the US Open are surging”, in CNN Business‎[2], archived from the original on 23 May 2025:
      The highly anticipated all-American matchup between Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe — marking the first US Open semifinals between two US men in nearly 20 years — will cost you quite a few Honey Deuces to attend.
  3. An unincorporated community in Johnson County, Indiana, United States.
  4. An unincorporated community in Crittenden County, Kentucky, United States.
  5. An unincorporated community in Pacific County, Washington, United States.
  6. A town in south-east South Australia, on the border with Victoria.
Usage notes
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Also believed to be a surname, but this requires confirmation.

Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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Proper noun

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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.

Anagrams

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Occitan

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Proper noun

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Frances m (Limousin)

  1. a male given name, equivalent to English Francis
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Further reading

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  • Yves Lavalade (2010), Dictionnaire d'usage occitan/français - Limousin, Marche, Périgord (in French), Institut d'Estudis Occitans dau Lemosin, →ISBN; page 306

Portuguese

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Noun

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

  1. obsolete spelling of francês

Adjective

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Frances (invariable)

  1. obsolete spelling of francês
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