a. and sb. [f. L. Frīsi-ī pl. (ad. the native name: OFris. Frise, Frese, MDu. Vriese (Du. Vries), OHG. Friaso, Frieso, OE. Frísa. Frésa wk. sb., a Frisian) + -AN.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to the people of Friesland. B. sb. a. An inhabitant of Friesland. b. The language of Friesland.
1598. Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., XI. vi. 147. The Frisian nation … rebelled after the ouerthrow of L. Apronius.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 212. The Frisians, neere vnto whom we lay incamped, shewed our men this herb.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., x. 181. English literary monuments go back to the seventh century, Netherlandish to the thirteenth; and there is an ‘Old-Saxon’ poem, the Heliand, or ‘Savior,’ from the ninth, and Frisian literature from the fourteenth.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 1472/2. The rigorous party was again divided into Vlamingen and Frisians: the Vlamingen, into Old Vlamingen and Contrahuiskopers; and the Frisians, into Hard and Soft Frisians.
