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FROCK

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 238 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FROCK , originally a See also:

long, loose See also:gown with broad sleeves, more especially that worn by members of the religious orders. The word is derived from the O. Fr. froc, of somewhat obscure origin; in See also:medieval See also:Lat. froccus appears also as floccus, which, if it is the See also:original, as Du Cange suggests (literula mutata), would connect the word with " fleck " (q.v.), properly a tuft of See also:wool. Another See also:suggestion refers the word to the See also:German See also:Rock, a coat (cf. " See also:rochet "), which in some rare instances is found as hrock. The formal stripping off of the frock became See also:part of the ceremony of degradation or deprivation in the See also:case of a condemned See also:monk; hence the expression " to unfrock " (med. Lat. defrocare, Fr. defroquer) used of the degradation of monks and of priests from See also:holy orders. In the See also:middle ages " frock "was also used of a long loose coat worn by men and of a coat of See also:mail, the "frock of mail." In something of this sense the word survived into the 19th See also:century for a coat with long skirts, now called the " frock coat." The word in now chiefly used in See also:English for a See also:child's or See also:young girl's See also:dress, of See also:body and skirt, but is frequently used of a woman's dress. Du Cange (Glossarium, s.v. floats) quotes an See also:early use of the word for a woman's garment (Miracula S. Udalrici, ap. See also:Mabillon, Ada Sanctorum See also:Benedict. saec. v. p. 466).

Here a woman, possessed of a See also:

devil, is cured, and sends her garments to the See also:tomb of the See also:saint, and a See also:dalmatic is ordered to be made out of the flocus or frocus. " Frock " also appears in the " smock frock," once the typical See also:outer garment of the English See also:peasant. It consists of a loose See also:shirt of See also:linen or other material, worn over the other clothes and See also:hanging to about the See also:knee; its characteristic feature is the " smocking," a puckered See also:honeycomb stitching See also:round the See also:neck and shoulders.

End of Article: FROCK

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