Obs. Forms: 1 frófer, -or, -ur, 2–3 frofer, 3 frofre, froure, frowere, frover(e, south. vroure. [OE. frófor, str. fem. and masc. = OS. fróbra, frófra, OHG. fluobara.]
1. Comfort; a means of comforting.
Beowulf, 698. Him dryhten forgeaf … frofor ond fultum.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 136. He ȝe-andbidode ðone frofer.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8786. Forr þatt he ȝifeþþ her hiss þeoww Hiss frofre o seofenn wise.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 92. Þeonne schullen ȝe iseon hu al þe world nis nout, & hu hire uroure is fals.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 185. We … buggeþ worldles froure wiþ moni sori teone.
b. applied to God, the Holy Ghost.
a. 1225. Juliana, 11. Ȝef þu wult … leuen … i þe hali gast folkene froure.
c. 1250. Hymn to God, 5, in Trin. Coll. Hom., App. 258. Vroure & hele folkes fader.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 54. Hali froure welt oc ðat miȝt.
c. 1275. Lay., 387. Fader he his on heuene and alle man his frouere.
2. attrib., as Frover-Ghost [= OHG. fluobargeist]; also in syntactical form Frovre Ghost, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John xiv. 26. Se haliȝa frofre gast.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 322. Se Halga Gast … is ȝehaten on Greciscum ȝereorde, Paraclitus, ðæt is, Frofor-gast.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 97. Þe frofre gast.
c. 1200. Ormin, 10554. Þe Faderr, & te Frofre Gast Himm hafenn sett to demenn.
