*Fraujaz or *
Frauwaz (
Old High German frô for earlier
frôjo, frouwo,
Old Saxon frao, froio,
Gothic frauja,
Old English frea,
Old Norse freyr), feminine *
Frawjon (OHG
frouwa, Old Saxon
frua, Old English
frowe, Goth. *
fraujo,
Old Norse freyja) is a
Common Germanic honorific meaning "
lord", "
lady", especially of
deities. The epithet came to be taken as the proper name of two separate deities in
Norse mythology,
Freyr and
Freyja. In both Old Norse and Old High German the female epithet became a female honorific "
lady", in German
Frau further weakened to the standard address "Mrs." and further to the normal word for "
woman", replacing earlier
wîp (English ) and
qinô (English ) "woman". Just like Norse
Freyja is usually interpreted as a hypostasis of
*Frijjo (
Frigg), Norse
Freyr is associated with
Ingwaz (
Yngvi) based on the
Ynglingasaga which names
Yngvi-Freyr as the ancestor of the
kings of Sweden, which as Common Germanic
*Ingwia-fraujaz would have designated the "lord of the
Ingvaeones. Both Freyr and Freyja are represented zoomorphically by the
pig: Freyr has
Gullinbursti ("golden bristles") while Freyjahas
Hildisvíni has ("battle-pig"), and one of Freyja's many names is
Syr, i.e. "sow".
