franger

English

Etymology

Unknown; perhaps an alteration of french letter.

Noun

franger (plural frangers)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) A condom.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:condom

   • 1999 November 4, Egan Blinkhorn, “Pirate Pay TV”, in aus.tv.pay‎ (Usenet):

     You have a point. But on the other hand, I didn't run off and tell mum with a six pack in one hand and an open franger packet in the other.

   • 2000 September 22, rhay10, “Sydney 2000 -Too sexy for some.....”, in rec.travel.australia+nz‎ (Usenet):

     Ranpaging Roy Slaven & HG Nelson who are comedians of the host broadcaster's Olympic graveyard shift have said that 48,000 of the frangers are for the personal use of the mayor of the Olympic village - 'Richo'. they claim the rest are for the Cuban team who when they have finished their events are going at it like rabbits.

   • 2001, Bryce Courtenay, Four Fires, unnumbered page:

     The barber would say while he was cutting a grown-up′s hair, ‘Do you need any home supplies, sir?’ which is the secret code for a packet of frangers.

   • 2002 February 7, Janine Burgess, “Armour against pleasure?”, in The Timaru Herald:

     Gone are the terms we used in our youth the frenchies, frangers, rubbers, joes, french letters, gumboots, rubbers, johnnies, parachutes and plastic fantastics -- these days they're just condoms.

Derived terms

• foot franger

References

Anagrams

• granfer

French

Etymology

From frange +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

franger

1. to fringe

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written frange- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling-change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Further reading

• “franger”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.