Fräulein
Encyclopedia
Fräulein (ˈfrɔɪlaɪn; literally, "little woman" or "little Mrs.") is the German language
honorific previously in common use for unmarried women, comparable to Miss
in English. Fräulein is the diminutive form of Frau, which was previously reserved only for married women. Since the 1970s, Fräulein has come to be used less often, and was banned from official use in Germany in 1972 by the German Minister of the Interior. Nowadays, style guides and dictionaries recommend that all women be addressed as Frau regardless of marital status, particularly in formal situations. German dictionary Duden
, for instance, notes that women should only be addressed as Fräulein when they specifically request this form of address.
Fräulein can be translated as Miss in English
; 小姐 in Chinese
; Signorina in Italian
; Mademoiselle in French
; Senhorita in Portuguese
; Панночка in Ukrainian
; and Señorita in Castillian Spanish.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
honorific previously in common use for unmarried women, comparable to Miss
Miss
Miss is an English language honorific traditionally used only for an unmarried woman . Originating in the 17th century, it is a contraction of mistress, which was used for all women. A period is not used to signify the contraction...
in English. Fräulein is the diminutive form of Frau, which was previously reserved only for married women. Since the 1970s, Fräulein has come to be used less often, and was banned from official use in Germany in 1972 by the German Minister of the Interior. Nowadays, style guides and dictionaries recommend that all women be addressed as Frau regardless of marital status, particularly in formal situations. German dictionary Duden
Duden
The Duden is a German dictionary, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880.Currently the Duden is in its 25th edition and published in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects like loan words, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, etc...
, for instance, notes that women should only be addressed as Fräulein when they specifically request this form of address.
Fräulein can be translated as Miss in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
; 小姐 in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
; Signorina in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
; Mademoiselle in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
; Senhorita in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
; Панночка in Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
; and Señorita in Castillian Spanish.
Usage in culture
- LiteratureLiteratureLiterature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
depict the former usage. Examples are E.T.A. HoffmannE.T.A. HoffmannErnst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann , better known by his pen name E.T.A. Hoffmann , was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist...
's tale Das Fräulein von ScuderiMademoiselle de ScuderiE. T. A. Hoffmann's novella, Mademoiselle de Scudéri. A Tale from the Times of Louis XIV [Das Fräulein von Scuderi. Erzählung aus dem Zeitalter Ludwig des Vierzehnten], was first published in 1819 in Yearbook for 1820. Dedicated to Love and Friendship [Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1820. Der Liebe und...
(18191819 in literatureThe year 1819 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* In England, Richard Carlile is convicted of blasphemy and sent to prison for publishing The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine ....
), Elizabeth von ArnimElizabeth von ArnimElizabeth von Arnim , born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian-born British novelist. By marriage she became Gräfin von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell...
's epistolary novelEpistolary novelAn epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use...
Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (19071907 in literatureThe year 1907 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* June 26 - Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Oxford University.*James Joyce meets Ettore Schmitz for the first time....
), and the comedy filmComedy filmComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
Fräulein vom Amt (19541954 in filmThe year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
), whose title was a common phrase denoting a female operatorTelephone operatorA telephone operator is either* a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls , calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain...
at a telephone exchange. In an earlier comedy film, Unser Fräulein Doktor (19401940 in filmThe year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
), Jenny Jugo plays Dr. Elisabeth Hansen, a young attractive teacher at a Gymnasium (German highschool) who has to fight to be taken seriously as an intellectual.
- In English-language film, fräulein is sometimes used as a hint that the characters are actually speaking German. An example of this is The Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music (film)Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
.
- "Fräulein" is the title of a 1960s song sung in German by Chris HowlandChris HowlandJohn Christopher Howland is a British radio and TV presenterwho opened German radio programmes for English music. Hereby he has changed German radio broadcast which has been dominated by English music ever since....
. The song was a German cover from Bobby Helms'sBobby HelmsRobert Lee Helms , better known as Bobby Helms, was an American country music singer who enjoyed his peak success in 1957 with his hit, "Jingle Bell Rock". He was mostly known for the Christmas song...
1957 song "Fraulein."
- The character Klavier Gavin, a prosecutor in the Ace Attorney series of video games, makes frequent use of the term fräulein when addressing or referring to the game's female characters.
- The legendary German tennis player Steffi GrafSteffi GrafSteffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player.In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24...
was given the nickname "Fräulein Forehand" by the press due to her extremely powerful forehand, considered by many as one of the greatest shots in the history of women's tennis.