frattingn.
slang.
Friendly relations between British and American soldiers and German women in the occupied parts of Western Germany after the war of 1939–45. Also transferred.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > fraternization > [noun] > between occupying troops and local inhabitants > between Allied soldiers and German women
fratting1945
1945 New Statesman 14 July 20/3 ‘Fraternisation’ has become a word denoting sexual intercourse (‘frats’ and ‘fratting’ are new Army words).
1945 Manch. Guardian 18 July 8/4 (caption) Frat or Non-frat.
1946 S. Spender European Witness i. 13 At the messes most of the conversation was about ‘fratting’.
1949 G. Cotterell Randle in Springtime ii. ii. 45 You see all the men here go fratting and it simply isn't fair on us girls... I can't see what they see in these German women.
1955 Times 11 May 15/3 To an outside observer, brotherly love is not the most striking feature of the Labour Party at this moment—apart, perhaps, from a little ‘fratting’ with a certain Liberal lady, with an obvious eye to the main chance.
Derivatives
frat n.2 a woman met by ‘fratting’; also as short for ‘fratting’.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > fraternization > [noun] > one who fraternizes > woman met through fraternization
frat1945
19451 [see main sense].
1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 81 A piece of Frat, Wren-language for any attractive young woman—ex-enemy—in occupied territory.
1949 G. Cotterell Randle in Springtime i. 8 Then, take my frat I go with, what harm did she ever do?
1957 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) 13 Maybe he'd've rather stayed with his frat.
frat v. (intransitive) to fraternize v.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > fraternization > fraternize [verb (intransitive)]
fraternize1611
cordialize1813
frat1957
1957 M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) 13 ‘He was fratting, wasn't he?’ ‘Sure—dark piece, lives up the Ludwigstrasse.’
1965 J. Fleming Nothing is Number ii. iv. 78 He did frat, I mean make friends a bit with the people you're thinking of.
ˈfratter n. one who ‘frats’.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > fraternization > [noun] > one who fraternizes
fraternizer1795
fratter1949
1949 G. Cotterell Randle in Springtime ii. v. 285 So he's married... I bet she doesn't know what a shameless old fratter you were.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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n.1945