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Glite Dictionary
🖼️ Decorated document 🔤 Old German script
Fraktur

Fraktur

9.9
A Pennsylvania German folk art style for decorated handwritten papers like birth certificates
  • noun
  • /ˈfræktər/
  • US
translation icon : Fraktur
  • Collectors value original Fraktur pieces for their historical and artistic significance.
  • Fraktur Room

Examples

  • He inherited a beautiful fraktur that was created for his great-grandparents' wedding announcement.

  • The museum displayed several colorful Fraktur documents from the eighteenth century.

  • She studied the intricate designs found in traditional Fraktur art for her research project.

  • The Fraktur style is unique to Pennsylvania German culture.

  • Many families cherish their Fraktur birth certificates.

  • This fraktur features intricate designs typical of Pennsylvania German birth certificates.

  • The museum showcased a fraktur that illustrated the artistry of early German settlers in the region.

Surface Forms

Fraktur singular
Frakturs plural

Etymology

Fraktur for the Pennsylvania German folk art takes its name from a style of writing whose letters look 'broken' and decorative, because many birth and baptism papers were written that way. It goes back to the Latin word fractus meaning 'broken', the same root as English fracture, so these decorated documents were called Fraktur as they used that broken-looking script.