Franciscan.
A friar of the religious order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209, now known as the Order of the Friars Minor.
Meaning & usage
A friar of the religious order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209, now known as the Order of the Friars Minor.
A friar or nun of a religious order based on the rule of Francis of Assisi's original order, such as (Roman Catholicism) the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (for men), Order of Friars Minor Conventual (men), Order of Saint Clare (women), or the Third Order of Saint Francis (men and women); or (Protestantism) certain orders in some Protestant churches, especially the Anglican Church and the Lutheran Church.
Where this word comes from
Learned borrowing from Late Latin Franciscānus (“(noun) friar of the order of Saint Francis; (adjective) of or from the order of Saint Francis”) + English -an (suffix forming agent nouns; and meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Franciscānus is derived from Franciscus (“the given name Francis, the name of Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1181 – 1226)”) + Latin -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, denoting relationships of origin, position, or possession); and Franciscus from Francia (“region inhabited or ruled over by the Franka, Frankia”) (apparently a nickname from Francis’s father, an Italian merchant who worked in France) + -iscus (suffix forming adjectives).
Of or pertaining to Saint Francis of Assisi.
Of or pertaining to (Roman Catholicism) the Order of the Friars Minor, or (Protestantism, Roman Catholicism) to another religious order based on the rule of Francis of Assisi's original order.
Where this word comes from
Learned borrowing from Late Latin Franciscānus (“(noun) friar of the order of Saint Francis; (adjective) of or from the order of Saint Francis”) + English -an (suffix forming agent nouns; and meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Franciscānus is derived from Franciscus (“the given name Francis, the name of Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1181 – 1226)”) + Latin -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, denoting relationships of origin, position, or possession); and Franciscus from Francia (“region inhabited or ruled over by the Franka, Frankia”) (apparently a nickname from Francis’s father, an Italian merchant who worked in France) + -iscus (suffix forming adjectives).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.