frons

Borrowed from Latin frōns (“the forehead, brow, front”). Doublet of front.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɹɒnz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɹɑnz/
• Rhymes: -ɒnz

frons (plural frontes)

1. (anatomy) In vertebrates, especially mammals, the forehead; the part of the cranium between the orbits and the vertex.
2. (entomology) The front part of the epicranium or head capsule of many insects; generally speaking, the area below or between the antennae and above the clypeus. Typically it lies between the genal or "cheek" areas on either side of the head.
   • 1981, J. F. McAlpine, Manual of Nearctic Diptera, volume 1, →ISBN, page 14:

     In a generalized insect the frons extends from the vertex to the frontoclypeal (epistomal) suture, between the two anterior tentorial pits.

3. (entomology) (of Diptera) The postfrons.
   • 1985, D. M. Wood, “A taxonomic conspectus of the Blondeliini of North and Central America and the West Indies (Diptera: Tachinidae)”, in Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, volume 117, →DOI, page 9:

     In most blondeliines (and in most Tachinidae in general), males have a narrower frons than conspecific females […]

• forehead

• “frons”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “frons”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from Middle French fronce, from Old French fronce, from Frankish *hrunkja (“wrinkle”) from Proto-Germanic *hrunkijō, *hrunkitō (“fold, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to turn, bend”). The semantic narrowing to frowns on the forehead may be influenced by unrelated Latin frōns.

• IPA^(key): /frɔns/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: frons
• Rhymes: -ɔns

frons f (plural fronsen, diminutive fronsje n)

1. A frown, a furrow of one's eyebrows or forehead.

• fronsen

• Afrikaans: frons

Frōns (forehead) virī.

From Proto-Italic *fronts, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrónts (compare Irish braine (“prow, edge”), Old Norse brandr (“sword blade”)), from *bʰren- (“to project; edge”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /frons/, [frõːs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /frons/, [frɔns]

frōns f (genitive frontis); third declension

1. (literally):
   1. (anatomy) the forehead, brow, front

      Synonyms: ōs, vultus

   2. the brow or countenance as an indicator of the feelings

      Synonyms: vultus, faciēs

2. (figuratively):
   1. as the mirror of a person's character or feelings
   2. (in particular) as expressing shame

      frontem perfricāre

      to assume a bold air

      (literally, “to wipe the blush of one's brow”)

      1. (transferred sense) a sense of modesty; decorum, decency
         • 34 CE – 62 CE, Persius, 5 104:

           exclāmet Melicerta perīsse frontem dē rēbus

   3. (Late Latin) as expressing impudence, boldness

      Synonym: ōs

3. (transferred sense):
   1. the outward appearance, external quality, look (as distinct from inward nature)

      Synonyms: faciēs, speciēs, forma, habitus

      prīmā fronte ― at first sight

   2. the forepart of anything; the front, facade (as opposed to back and sides)

      Antonyms: tergum, latus

      ā fronte, in fronte, in prīmā fronte, in frontem ― in front, to the fore

   3. (military) the front of an army or fleet in battle array
   4. (surveying, geography) frontage (the part facing the road, river, coastline), usually in ref. to its length
      1. the coastline; a projecting piece of coast
   5. the outer extremity or face, the outer or inner surface (eg. of a wall), the top or bottom end (of a trench), the broad side (of a rectangle)
      1. either of the flat ends of a papyrus scroll
   6. the exposed surface, outer side of anything

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Frōns (leafy branch)

From Proto-Indo-European *bʰron-d- (compare Old English brant (“steep”), Latvian bruôds (“roof ridge”), from *bʰren- (“project”).

• fruns (dialectal)

frōns f (genitive frondis); third declension

1. (literally) A leafy branch, green bough, foliage.

   Limumque tenent in fronde relictum. (Metamorphoses, 1, 347, Ovidius)

   And they hold some leftover mud in their foliage. (Metamorphoses, 1, 347, Ovid)

   Synonym: folium

2. (poetic, transferred sense) A garland made of leafy boughs, a garland of leaves, leafy chaplet.

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• frondēscō

• “frons” on page 810 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• “frons”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “frons”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• frons in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• frons in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to frown: frontem contrahere (opp. explicare)
    
  • to beat one's brow: frontem ferire, percutere
    
  • one can see it in his face: in fronte alicuius inscriptum est
    
  • not to betray one's feelings by one's looks: sententiam fronte celare, tegere