frac

English

Alternative forms

• frack

Etymology 1

From English hydrofracking.

Verb

frac (third-person singular simple present fracs, present participle fraccing, simple past and past participle fracced)

1. (oil industry) To use hydraulic fracturing (fraccing)
   • 2011, Arrow, “Fraccing”, in Arrow Energy‎^[2] (html), archived from the original on 22 January 2012:

     To date, Arrow has only fracced about 2.5 percent of its wells ...

Adjective

frac

1. (oil industry) Relating to or denoting hydraulic fracturing
   • 2012 January 3, Ralph Benko, “Daniel Yergin's The Quest”, in Forbes‎^[3]:

     More than a million wells have been fracced in the United States since the first frac job six decades ago.

   • 2012 January 26, Jonathan Fahey, “No energy industry backing for the word 'fracking'”, in Yahoo News‎^[4]:

     The drilling industry has generally spelled the word without a "K," using terms like "frac job" or "frac fluid."

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of frac job.

Noun

frac (plural fracs)

1. (oil industry) Frac job.
   • 1976, United States. Energy Research and Development Administration, Bartlesville Energy Technology Center, United States. Dept. of Energy. Division of Oil, Gas, and Shale Technology, United States. Division of Oil, Gas, Shale, and In Situ Technology, United States. Dept. of Energy. Division of Fossil Fuel Extraction, “NATURAL BUTTES UNIT, UINTAH COUNTY, UTAH, MASSIVE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING DEMONSTRATION”, in Contracts for cooperative and supporting research on enhanced oil and gas recovery and improved drilling methods‎^[5], volumes 7-10:

     A program summary showing the type and volume of fluid and the size and amount of sand that is planned for the eight fracs is shown in table 1.

Etymology 3

Abbreviation of fracture.

Noun

frac (plural fracs)

1. Fracture.
2. Fracturing.

Etymology 4

Abbreviation of fraction.

Noun

frac (plural fracs)

1. Fraction
2. Fractioning

Derived terms

• frac job
• frac spread

Anagrams

• FARC, FCRA, RCAF, carf

French

Etymology

From English frock.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁak/

• Audio; “fric-frac”:

  (file)

Noun

frac m (plural fracs)

1. white tie and tails

Descendants

• → Russian: фрак (frak)
  • → Armenian: ֆրակ (frak)
  • → Georgian: ფრაკი (praḳi)

Further reading

• “frac”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French frac.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfrak/
• Rhymes: -ak
• Hyphenation: fràc

Noun

frac m (invariable)

1. morning dress, tailcoat, white tie and tails

Middle Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *wrakkā, probably related to *grúac (“hair”); for similar sense development, see Scottish Gaelic gruagach (“maiden, woman”), which evolved from gruag, as unmarried women did not cover their hair.

Compare Welsh gwraig and Breton gwreg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɸraɡ]

Noun

frac f

1. woman

   Synonyms: banscál, ben

Mutation

Mutation of frac

radical	lenition	nasalization
frac	ḟrac	frac pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Middle Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 frac, frag”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French frac.

Noun

frac n (plural fracuri)

1. white tie and tails

Declension

Declension of frac

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	frac	fracul		fracuri	fracurile
genitive-dative	frac	fracului		fracuri	fracurilor
vocative	fracule			fracurilor

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French frac.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɾak/ [ˈfɾak]
• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: frac

Noun

frac m (plural fracs or fraques)

1. tailcoat

Further reading

• “frac”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10