fraktur

Text set in fraktur type. Detail from the dedication page of Goethe's Faust, a 1920 edition.

Meaning

Noun

  • A style of black letter type, used especially in Germany in the 16th to 20th centuries.
  • A Pennsylvania German document style, incorporating watercolour illustration and fraktur lettering.

Origin

  • 1886 fractur, 1904 fraktur, from German Fraktur, Fractur, from Latin frāctūra ("breaking"), from frangere, past participle fractus. Compare English fracture, fraction. fracture.

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