Concept in Definition ABC

If someone reads the word frank at the margin From its context it is very likely that you do not know what it is, since we are talking about a word with very different meanings. Thus, the frank term expresses a quality, a monetary unit, a people of the ancient world, a surname, a place name and is also part of some phrases and compound terms.

Who were the Franks?

The Frankish people came from territory of present-day Germany and moved to the north of present-day France in times of Roman empire. This town had its own language, the language franca, a language that is part of the heritage of the current French language. It should be noted that the word France comes from franco, since Gaul (the territory of France in ancient times) was occupied by the Franks, who established their own reign.

According to what the chronicles narrate, the Franks came from the descendants of the Merovean king, who belonged to the Merovingian dynasty. The Frankish lineage defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. This battle has an important historical relevance, since it supposed the brake to the Muslim expansion towards the north of the

continent European.

The historical fact that the Franks were the founding people of present-day France has had consequences in language. Thus, we must not forget that there is a chemical symbol called francium, that there is the francophony, the francophobia or the francophilia.

A very common term in numismatics

Currency specialists know that the franc is a monetary unit related to countries that had this currency before joining the euro: France, Belgium, Luxembourg or Monaco. At present we find the Swiss franc, since Switzerland is not part of the European Union and maintains its own currency. According to experts, the Frankish term as currency comes from an inscription that appeared on the coins of the Frankish kings.

Franco as an adjective

We say that someone is frank or frank when he normally says what he thinks. Therefore, to say that a person is frank is to affirm that he is sincere. The adjectives frank and sincere correspond to the nouns frankness and sincerity. The adjective frank has several antonyms, such as hypocritical, false or twisted.

The term free is also equivalent to free and that is why we use concepts such as free port, fief franco and the like. Franco means equally clear and indisputable (someone can be in a frank decline or in a frank minority).

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