Fro

How to spell fro

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fro

What does fro mean?

1. adverbAway from a point, used almost only in the phrase 'to and fro' to describe repeated back-and-forth movement.

Fro in a sentence

• The old porch swing rocked gently to and fro in the breeze.

• Commuters move to and fro across the station concourse all morning.

Where does fro come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word comes from the Old Norse frá, meaning 'from' or 'away', which Norse settlers brought into the north of England during the Viking age. In early Middle English it sat alongside the native 'from', and for a time the two competed as ways of saying 'away from'. Over the centuries 'from' won out as the everyday preposition, while 'fro' shrank back until it survived almost entirely inside the set phrase 'to and fro', meaning a repeated back-and-forth motion. That phrase pairs 'to' (toward) with 'fro' (away), preserving the old contrast in a fossilised expression. Because the word is now almost never used on its own, writers can be unsure whether it is spelled 'fro', 'froe' or 'frow', when in fact the bare three-letter form is correct.

How the word is built

• fro (from Old Norse frá: from, away), surviving mainly in the fixed phrase 'to and fro'