Forms: 4–5 fro(u)ntel(l, 5–6 fruntall(e, -telle, 6–7 frontall, 6–8 frontale, (6 frontayle), 7– frontal. [ME. frountel, a. OF. frontel:—late L. frontāle, f. front-, frōns: see FRONT sb. and -AL. OF. had also the form frontal (still preserved in some senses); in mod.F., by confusion of suffixes, frontail and fronteau (cf. med.L. frontellum in Promp. Parv.) are used in various specific applications of the general sense.]
† 1. Something applied to the forehead. Obs.
a. A band or ornament worn on the forehead.
c. 1320. Pol. Songs (Camden), 154. The bout and the barbet wyth frountel shule feȝe.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 585/2. Frontale, a frontell.
1552. Huloet, Frontayle for a womans head, some call it a fruntlet.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 416. His brother foorthwith tooke the roiall frontall called a diademe, and did it about his owne head.
1611. Bp. Hall, Serm., v. 52. Look how much difference there is between … the frontal of the high priest and the bells of the horses.
b. A piece of defensive armor for a horse’s head; = front-stall. (Cf. Fr. frontail, fronteau.)
1587. Underdown, trans. Heliodorus, IX. 126. They arme their horses too; about his legges they tie bootes, and couer his head with frontals of steele.
c. Med. A medicament applied to the forehead to cure headache. (Cf. Fr. frontal, fronteau.)
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 75. It cureth the head ach, if it be applied as a frontall to the forehead and temples.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 172. A Frontal with Mastic…. Its to be used when the Eyes are afflicted with Rheums, and that for prevention as well as Cure.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 154/1. The fit having almost run it’s career, Miss Biddy was on the point of retrieving her senses, when the frontal prescribed by Fathom was applied.
d. A knotted cord, wound tightly round the forehead as a means of torture. (Cf. Fr. frontal.)
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xv. 48. To make your brains fly out of your heads with a frontal of cord.
2. A movable covering for the front of an altar, generally of embroidered cloth, silk, etc., but sometimes of metal.
1381. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 233. An altar-cloth, with a frontel, for the great feast-days.
1459. Paston Lett., No. 336, I. 489. Item, j. auter clothe, withe a frontell of white damaske.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 394. The goldin and silkin claithis … war distribute amang the abbays of Scotland to be vestamentis and frontallis to thair altaris.
1566. Eng. Ch. Furniture (Peacock, 1866), 49. A girdell a fruntall and 3 albes.
1874. Micklethwaite, Modern Parish Churches, 305. The frontal, or coloured altar-cloth, should hang separately from the altar.
1877. J. D. Chambers, Divine Worship, 268. Frontals may be metallic, and formed of gold and silver plates.
† b. ? A hanging for the front of a bed. Obs.
1539. in Inv. R. Wardrobe (1815), 47. Rufis of beddis.—Item … thre curtingis … with ane frontale. Ibid. (1543), 98. The nether frontale of the samyne bed.
c. A decorated front for a tomb.
1881. Academy, 5 March, 177/3. The whole frontal is enriched in a … somewhat tawdry manner by numerous false gems.
3. The façade of a building.
1784. Henley, in Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 132, note. We are told of a strange fortress which they constructed in the remote mountains of Spain, whose frontal presented the following inscription.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, xxiii. Vast hotels, with their gloomy frontals, and magnificent contempt of comfort.
1893. M. E. Francis, N. C. Village, 202. Not a very imposing building … with its low frontal and irregular architecture.
† 4. Arch. (See quot. 1730–6.) Obs.
1578. T. Nicholas, trans. Conq. W. India (1596), 36. It [the temple] hath foure windowes with frontales and galleries.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Frontal, a little fronton or pediment sometimes placed over a little door or window.
† 5. = FRONTIER sb. 3 (where see quot. 1412–20).
