Definition
1. (adjective, historical) Free; unencumbered. In Old English and medieval law, "frank" functioned as a prefix meaning free, unrestricted, or of free status. It appears almost exclusively in compound legal terms — frank-bank, frankalmoign, frankmarriage, frankpledge, franktenement — rather than as a standalone legal adjective.
2. (verb) To send mail matter free of postage charge. To "frank" a letter or package means to authorize its transmission through the postal system without the sender paying postage. This usage gave rise to the franking privilege.
3. (noun, historical) A French gold coin worth twenty sols. Appears occasionally in historical commercial and mercantile documents but has no current legal significance.
4. (noun, archaic) A pigsty. Legal relevance is narrow: the term appears in some medieval agricultural records and manorial documents, though rarely.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Honest and candid; slightly blunt in manner; not reserved or disguised. Also: unmistakable or clinically obvious; free and unbounded.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A pigsty. (The broader sense of "candid and honest" also appears in Webster's but dominates modern usage.)
The legal meaning of "frank" is largely disconnected from the common sense of honesty or candor. In legal contexts, "frank" almost always signals the Old English meaning of "free" — as in free from obligation, feudal burden, or cost — and appears as a building block of compound terms. A researcher encountering "frank" in a legal or historical source should not read it as a character descriptor but as a status or exemption marker.
---
Common Confusion
"Frank" (free from burden) is frequently absorbed invisibly into compound terms without researchers recognizing it as a distinct legal root. When the compound breaks down — when a court or treatise refers to "frank tenure" or "frank marriage" without the standard fused spelling — the term can appear to be a personal name or a generic adjective. Similarly, "to frank" as a postal verb and "frank" as the medieval-law adjective are etymologically related but functionally distinct; conflating them in historical research creates category errors.
---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
The primary legal significance of "frank" lies in its compound forms. Each is a distinct legal concept:
- FRANKALMOIGN: Tenure in free alms; land held by a religious institution in exchange for prayers or spiritual services rather than feudal military or economic obligation.
- FRANK-BANK (FRANK BANK): Free bench; a widow's right to sit in or hold a portion of her deceased husband's copyhold lands.
- FRANKMARRIAGE: A form of tenure by which land was given to a husband and wife and the heirs of their bodies, free of service for three generations.
- FRANKPLEDGE: The system of mutual suretyship under which groups of freemen were collectively responsible for one another's good behavior.
- FRANKTENEMENT: Freehold; tenure of a free tenement. A freehold estate. See FEUD in Anderson's.
- FRANKING PRIVILEGE: The right of certain officials — historically, members of Parliament, peers, and in the United States, members of Congress — to send mail at public expense or free of postage.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers approaching historical property law, feudal tenure, or early constitutional materials will encounter "frank" almost exclusively through its compound forms. The standalone term is a signpost: when historical sources use "frank" without a companion word, they are most often invoking the postal sense (post-18th century) or the status-of-freedom sense (pre-18th century).
The franking privilege is a live research area with a paper trail that runs from colonial charters, through the U.S. Congress's repeated modification and eventual restriction of congressional franking, to modern campaign finance and ethics law. The privilege was formally abolished in England following 3 & 4 Vict., c. 96 with the introduction of penny postage. In the United States, the Act of January 31, 1873 was a key statutory inflection point — it repealed franking privileges that had previously been broadly extended.
For researchers in the Law Mind corpus, the most common modern encounter with "frank" as part of a proper name — not a legal term — is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That usage is coincidental; "Frank" there is a surname (Representative Barney Frank), not a legal term. Researchers should not cross-reference Dodd-Frank into feudal or postal franking materials.
Historical property law researchers: when parsing medieval or early modern conveyances, recognizing "frank" as "free from" rather than as a name or adjective of candor will prevent significant misreading of tenure conditions and encumbrance status.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
The three historical dictionaries converge cleanly on the core meaning. Bouvier's is the most complete, providing the Old English law meaning (free, used in compounds), the postal meaning (to send free of postage), the parliamentary history (Members of Parliament and peers held this privilege, abolished by 3 & 4 Vict., c. 96), and the monetary meaning (the French gold coin). Anderson's is characteristically compressed: it lists the adjectival meaning ("free"), notes frankalmoign and frankpledge as compound forms, and identifies the franking privilege in the postal sense, citing the 1873 act. Rapalje & Lawrence, in the portion excerpted, gestures toward franchise and related concepts but does not develop "frank" as a standalone entry with depth.
None of the historical dictionaries address the modern regulatory usage (Dodd-Frank), nor would one expect them to. Researchers relying exclusively on these sources for understanding of contemporary securities or consumer finance law will find no guidance here.
What the historical dictionaries miss is the atrophy of the franking privilege as a research area — the privilege's abolition and restriction is noted but the subsequent legislative history of congressional franking in the United States, including the restrictions enacted in the 1970s following abuse concerns, is beyond their scope.
---
Jurisdictional Note
The franking privilege in the United States is governed by federal statute and applies to members of Congress; it has been substantially restricted and does not extend to state officials. English parliamentary franking was abolished in the 19th century. Feudal compound forms using "frank" as a root are primarily relevant to English common law jurisdictions and appear in American property law only in historical chain-of-title and colonial grant research.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
For the Dodd-Frank Act and its regulatory framework, see: Consumer Protection — Dodd-Frank Act and CFPB Authority (The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia); Federal Securities — Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act — Securities Provisions (The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia); Banking — Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB, Truth in Lending, Dodd-Frank Title X) (The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia).
Note: These encyclopedia entries address the Dodd-Frank Act as a modern statute. They are not connected to the historical legal meaning of "frank" discussed in this entry.
---