Friedrich

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Friedrich.

Proper noun

Friedrich (plural Friedrichs or Friedriches)

  1. A male given name from German, equivalent to English Frederick.
    • 1872 December, Edward E[verett] Hale, “Ups and Downs”, in Old and New, volume VI, number 6, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, [], chapter XXVI, pages 689–690:
      As it happened, also, the particular Friedrichs and Wilhelms whom he meant to see and confer with were out of town, or had moved their habitats, so that he could not easily find them. [] “I beg your pardon, but can you tell me where Friedrich Baum lives?
    • 1983, William R[omeyn] Everdell, The End of Kings: A History of Republics and Republicans, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 250:
      The dour Friedrich Wilhelm I, never out of uniform, accumulating tax income from a dozen different unconstitutional sources, takes time out from drilling his grenadiers to smash an inefficient postillion over the head with his cane. The sleepless Friedrich der Grosse, an atheist Calvin, rises at 6 a.m. to write the day’s orders to his bureaucrats, a shining example to the world of “enlightened despotism.” Even the feckless Friedrich Wilhelm III, defeated by a French revolutionary army, appoints a minister to tell him “Your majesty must do from above what the French have done from below.” [] When the king contemplated (God forbid) his abdication on the issue, Bismarck threw himself into the breach, accepted the office of Chancellor, defied the parliament, and collected the tax, just as the Friedrichs and Wilhelms had done before the French Revolution interrupted the course of progress.
    • 2001, James Howard Kunstler, The City in Mind: Meditations on the Urban Condition, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 116:
      The king’s palace, abode of all the Friedrichs and Wilhelms, had stood there, too, vacated after World War One, discreetly ignored by Hitler, bombed by the Allies in 1945, and finally demolished by the communists.
    • 2013, Reut Yael Paz, “Jews, Universities and International Law”, in A Gateway between a Distant God and a Cruel World: The Contribution of Jewish German-Speaking Scholars to International Law (The Erik Castrén Institute Monographs on International Law and Human Rights; 16), Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, section 3 (Jewish Legal Denkstil/Denkkollektiv as Gateways in German Law Faculties), subsection 2 (Friedrich Julius Stahl: The ‘Paul’ of the 19th Century), pages 105–106:
      Eventually it [the law faculty] chose Friedrich Julius Stahl (1802–1861) – born Joel Golson (or Jolson). [] Uhlfelder’s activities were also efficient in assuring Joel’s (and other Jews’) admission to the renowned Protestant school, the Wilhelm Gymnasium.96 It was there that Joel became acquainted with Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer – the Bannerträger des Neuhumanismus – and with the philosopher and Goethe’s friend Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. Joel also developed a special relationship with Friedrich Wilhelm Tiersch during his Gymnasium years. [] Clearly, his choice of a new name shows what it must have felt like to be a Joel surrounded by so many Friedrichs and Wilhelms.
    • 2022, Andrew Oberg, “(Honestly) Facing Finitude”, in The Christ Is Dead, Long Live the Christ: A Philotheologic Prayer, a Hermeneutics of Healing, Eugene, Ore.: Resource Publications, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, part 4 (Temporality: God/“God” Here, “the Kingdom” Now), page 200:
      Kaufmann goes so far in this as to state that what happened to two famous FriedrichesHölderlin and Nietzsche—in their later years (madness and vegetation, respectively) does not really matter since their works had by then been done.
  2. A surname from German.
    • 1979, Tony Chiu, Port Arthur Chicken, New YorK, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, Inc., →ISBN, pages 107 and 139:
      It has been learned that mr. blair maintains a second savings account, under the name george friedrich, at Leclair & Cie of Geneva, Switz. [] A search of the photo files showed of the George Friedriches in the United States who hold passports, none bears the remotest physical resemblance to Mr. Blair.
    • 2015, Joel M. Levin, Our Beguine: The Dance of Life, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN:
      We met our landlords-to-be, Frau and Herr Friedrich, themselves émigrés from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. [] When my mother arrived and we brought her to our attic home, she immediately made friends with our landlords and was able to converse in a form of German that the Friedriches easily understood.

Statistics

  • According to the 2010 United States Census, Friedrich is the 5,563th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 6,249 individuals. Friedrich is most common among White (96.03%) individuals.

German

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the Old High German Fridurih (fridu (peace) + -rih (suffix for male names, originally a noun meaning king)), from Proto-West Germanic *Friþurīk.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfʁiː.dʁɪç/, /ˈfʁiː.də.ʁɪç/ (standard)
    • (file)
  • IPA(key): /ˈfʁɪ.dʁɪç/, /ˈfʁɪ.də.ʁɪç/ (regional, including western Germany)
  • The choice for a pronunciation with or without /ə/ tends to be based more on general personal preference, rather than the exact spelling in a given case.

Proper noun

Friedrich m (proper noun, strong, genitive Friedrichs)

  1. a male given name, equivalent to English Frederick

Proper noun

Friedrich m or f (proper noun, surname, masculine genitive Friedrichs or (with an article) Friedrich, feminine genitive Friedrich, plural Friedrichs)

  1. a surname originating as a patronymic

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Short forms
  • Frido
  • Friedo
Diminutives

Descendants

  • English: Frederick
  • Chinese: 弗里德里希 (Fúlǐdélǐxī) (transliteration)

Further reading

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