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Origin and history of Frisian

Frisian(adj.)

1590s, "of or pertaining to the people of Frisia," the lowland coast of the North Sea and nearby islands (Old English Frysland, Freslond; adjective Freisisc), named for the Germanic tribe whose name was Latinized as Frisii," which perhaps originally meant "curly-headed" (Room; compare Old Frisian frisle "curly hair"). But Boutkan thinks it probably non-Indo-European.

The Frisians emerged along the North Sea coast c. 700 B.C.E. and were known by name to Tacitus (the only people mentioned in his work still known by the same name). The native English form of the people name is Old English Frysan/Fresan (plural). Cognate with Old Frisian Frisa, Middle Dutch Vriese, Old High German Friaso).

As a noun from c. 1600, "West Germanic language spoken in Friesland." It is closely related to Dutch and Old English.

Entries linking to Frisian

1957, trademark registered 1959 by Wham-O Company; the prototype was modeled on pie tins from Mrs. Frisbie's Pies, made by the Frisbie Bakery of Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S. Middlebury College students began tossing them around in the 1930s (though Yale and Princeton also claim to have discovered their aerodynamic qualities).

Thirteen years ago the Wham-O Manufacturing Company of San Gabriel, Calif., ... brought out the first Frisbee. Wham-O purchased the rights from a Los Angeles building inspector named Fred Morrison, who in turn had been inspired by the airworthy pie tins of the Frisbie Bakery in Bridgeport, Conn. (which went out of business in March of 1958). He changed the spelling to avoid legal problems. [Sports Illustrated, Aug. 3, 1970]

The family name is attested in English records from 1226, from a place name in Leicestershire (Frisby on the Wreak), attested from 1086, from Old Danish, meaning "farmstead or village of the Frisians" (Old Norse Frisa, genitive plural of Frisr; see Frisian). Also see by (prep.).

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