FROCK  , originally a

long, loose gown with broad sleeves, more especially that worn by members of the religious orders . The word is derived from the O . Fr. froc, of somewhat obscure origin; in medieval Lat. froccus appears also as floccus, which, if it is the original, as Du Cange suggests (literula mutata), would connect the word with " fleck " (q.v.), properly a tuft of wool . Another suggestion refers the word to the German Rock, a coat (cf . " rochet "), which in some rare instances is found as hrock . The formal stripping off of the frock became part of the ceremony of degradation or deprivation in the case of a condemned monk; hence the expression " to unfrock " (med . Lat. defrocare, Fr. defroquer) used of the degradation of monks and of priests from holy orders . In the middle ages " frock "was also used of a long loose coat worn by men and of a coat of mail, the "frock of mail." In something of this sense the word survived into the 19th century for a coat with long skirts, now called the " frock coat." The word in now chiefly used in English for a child's or young girl's dress, of body and skirt, but is frequently used of a woman's dress . Du Cange (Glossarium, s.v. floats) quotes an early use of the word for a woman's garment (Miracula S . Udalrici, ap . Mabillon, Ada Sanctorum Benedict. saec. v. p . 466) .

Here a woman, possessed of a

devil, is cured, and sends her garments to the tomb of the saint, and a dalmatic is ordered to be made out of the flocus or frocus . " Frock " also appears in the " smock frock," once the typical outer garment of the English peasant . It consists of a loose shirt of linen or other material, worn over the other clothes and hanging to about the knee; its characteristic feature is the " smocking," a puckered honeycomb stitching round the neck and shoulders .