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Fräulein is the diminutive form of Frau, which was previously reserved only for married women. Frau is in origin the equivalent of "My lady" or "Madam", a form of address of a noblewoman. But by an ongoing process of devaluation of honorifics, it came to be used as the unmarked term for "woman" by about 1800.
A reproduction of the ithyphallic Rällinge statue, interpreted as a Viking Age depiction of Freyr *Fraujaz or *Frauwaz (Old High German frô for earlier frôjo, frouwo, Old Saxon frao, frōio, Gothic frauja, Old English frēa, Old Norse freyr), feminine *Frawjōn (OHG frouwa, Old Saxon frūa, Old English frōwe, Goth. *fraujō, Old Norse freyja) is a Common Germanic honorific meaning "lord ...
By contrast, Frau Holle resides somewhere above the Earth, and the protagonists must go to her, paradoxically by diving into a spring. When she makes her bed, loose feathers are 'stirred up' and fall to earth as snow, and so this fairy tale is an origin myth as well. Comparison between Frau Holle and a weather or earth goddess is inevitable.
If the last name of the woman is not used or known, the correct form is gnädige Frau ("gracious lady") or its abbreviation gnä' Frau, but this is somewhat old-fashioned except in Austria. In correspondence, the correct form of address is Sehr geehrte Frau, followed by the surname. Fräulein (Frl.; pl., Fräulein)
The word comes from Old English hlǣfdige; the first part of the word is a mutated form of hlāf, "loaf, bread", also seen in the corresponding hlāford, "lord".The second part is usually taken to be from the root dig-, "to knead", seen also in dough; the sense development from bread-kneader, or bread-maker, or bread-shaper, to the ordinary meaning, though not clearly to be traced historically ...
In doing so, they can either both adopt the husband's name, or both adopt the wife's name as an Ehename: Herr Meyer and Frau Meyer; Herr Schmidt and Frau Schmidt. One partner, but not both, may combine both names by a hyphen. Thus, one of them then bears a double name (Doppelname). (Herr Schmidt and Frau Meyer-Schmidt (or Frau Schmidt-Meyer ...
Stemming from the Proto-Germanic feminine noun * frawjōn ('lady, mistress'), it is cognate with Old Saxon frūa ('lady, mistress') or Old High German frouwa ('lady'; cf. modern German Frau). Freyja is also etymologically close to the name of the god Freyr, meaning 'lord' in Old Norse.
a) nom., acc. die Frau, dat., gen. der Frau. Exceptions are: Old declensions like Frau/Fraw with genitive and dative singular der Frauen/Frawen (in older usage) Words derived from Latin with nominative singular in -a and genitive singular -ae/-ä (in older usage)