f., an older nom. sing. frauva, u, f., occurs Fms. x. 421, (Ágrip); frouva, Stj. 47; frou, id.; frú is prop. a later contracted form from freyja; therefore the gen. in old writers is always frú (qs. frúvu); and the word is in the sing. indecl., thus, frú-innar, Fms. ix. 292; hann fékk frú Ceciliu, x. 3; móðir frú Ingigerðar, Landn. 240; frú Kristínar, Fms. ix. 8; slíkrar frou (sic) sem ek em, Str. 40, 47: in mod. usage gen. frúar, if used by itself or put after one’s name, but indecl. if put before it in addressing any one, thus, Frú Kristínar, but Kristínar frúar; the gen. frúar occurs Fas. iii. 586, in a MS. of the 15th century; pl. frúr, but older form fruvur or frovur, e. g. frovor, Edda (Arna-Magn.) i. 96 (Kb.); but Ob. frúr, Hkr. i. 16: [freyja was origin. fem. of freyr, and prop. meant Lat. domina; Germ. frau; Dan. frue; no Goth. fraujô is found]:—a lady; in Icel. at present only used of the wives of men of rank or title, e. g. biskups-frú, amtmanns-frú; wives of priests are not called so: again, húsfreyja is more homely, Germ. hausfrau, Engl. housewife, always of a married woman, vide e. g. the Þjóðólfr (Icel. newspaper): in the 14th century in Icel. frú was used of abbesses and wives of knights, but was little used before the 13th century: af hennar (the goddess Freyja) nafni skyldi kalla allar konur tignar (noble woman), svá sem nú heita fruvor, Hkr. l. c.; af hennar nafni er þat tignar-nafn er ríkis-konur (women of rank) eru kallaðar fruvor, Edda l. c.; Kolr hafði talat margt við frú eina ríka (of a foreign lady in Wales), Nj. 280: again, good housewives, such as Bergthora in Njála, are called hús-freyjur, but never frúr; thus, kemsk þó at seinna fari, húsfreyja, Nj. 69; gakk þú út, húsfreyja, þvíat ek vil þik fyrir öngan mun inni brenna, 200; búandi ok húsfreyja, Grág. i. 157; góð húsfreyja, Nj. 51; gild húsfreyja, Glúm. 349, Bs. i. 535:—the Virgin Mary is in legends called vár frú, our Lady; cp. jungfrú (pronounced jómfrú).