Frauenzimmer

Proto-form   *fraujaz + *timbraz

First attested   15th c. (women's chamber sense); 17th c. (individual woman …

Compound of Middle High German 'vrouwe' (lady, woman; from OHG 'frouwa', from Proto-Germanic *fraujaz) and 'Zimmer' (room, chamber; from OHG 'zimbar', timber, wooden structure, room). Originally denoted the physical space of the women's quarters in a noble household; underwent metonymy to the women inhabiting that space, then to individual women. DWDS traces first attestation to the 15th century.

The compound 'Frauenzimmer' exemplifies a process of semantic metonymy — container for contained — that is well documented in the history of German vocabulary for women. 'Zimmer' derives from OHG 'zimbar' (timber, wooden construction, room), from Proto-Germanic *timbraz (timber, building material), cognate with English 'timber' and Dutch 'timmer'. 'Frauenzimmer' in the 15th century meant the physical women's chamber or women's apartments of a noble court. By the 16th century it had shifted to denote the collective female court entourage — the women who inhabited those rooms. By the 17th century, 'Frauenzimmer' was applied to an individual woman (this development is noted in the Grimm Wörterbuch). DWDS confirms: 'Still in neutral use customary in the 18th century, later (19th century) mostly jocular or contemptuous.' The word underwent complete semantic pejoration through the 19th century, and by the 20th century it had fallen entirely into the archaic/literary or consciously ironic register. It is today marked 'salopp, abwertend, veraltet' in DWDS. The semantic history — noble space > noble women > all women > jocular dismissal > archaic — is a case study in the pejoration of female-referent vocabulary.

Germany Austria Switzerland (nationwide; now obsolete in all registers except ironic or literary quotation)

This word has been displaced in modern usage by: Frau (woman); Dame (lady, formal); Weib (woman, now itself colloquial/coarse) .