Fraktur

[ frahk-toor ]

noun

1. Printing. German black-letter text, a style of type.
2. (usually lowercase) Also fractur.
   1. a stylized, highly decorative watercolor or watercolor-and-ink painting in the Pennsylvania-German tradition, often bearing elaborate calligraphy and standardized motifs, as birds, tulips, mermaids, and unicorns, and typically appearing on a book page, baptismal certificate or other family record, or merchant's advertisement.
   2. the elaborate calligraphy used in frakturs.

Fraktur

/ frakˈtuːr /

noun

1. a style of typeface, formerly used in German typesetting for many printed works

Word History and Origins

Origin of Fraktur¹

1900–05, Americanism; < German < Latin frāctūra “action of breaking” (in reference to the curlicues that broke up the continuous line of a word). See fracture

Word History and Origins

Origin of Fraktur¹

German, from Latin fractūra a breaking, fracture ; from the curlicues that seem to interrupt the continuous line of a word

Example Sentences

Polished and engraved in Munich, using the Nazis favourite Fraktur font, it was delivered to Chur on the eve of World War Two.

From BBC

Although not specifically linked to Valentine’s Day, an exhibit at the museum opening March 17, “Material Witness: Folk and Self-Taught Artists at Work,” features two examples of “fraktur,” exuberantly decorated watercolors made by German immigrants in Pennsylvania.

From Seattle Times

New indoor exhibits will include historic crafts and fraktur, a type of folk art that features an illustrated German calligraphy style.

From Washington Post

Frankenmuth’s German heritage is woven through the city, in the Bavarian Inn’s 50-foot Glockenspiel tower, in the hotel rooms named for founding families and in the Fraktur lettering everywhere.

From New York Times

A fraktur labyrinth, a style of Pennsylvania-German folk art, dated 1824.

From New York Times