Etymology

cp. OIcel frá ‘from’ < PGmc *frama, cp. OE fram, from, Go fram, OFris fram, from, OS, OHG fram. Attempts to derive from native OE fram, from have been unconvincing (see further Dance). 

PGmc Ancestor

*frama

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

frá ‘from’ 
(ONP frá (præp.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far frá, Icel frá, Norw frå, ODan fran, fra, Dan fra, Sw från, Sw dial frå

OE Cognate

fram, from 'from, by, of'

Phonological and morphological markers

loss of nasal consonant in ON

Summary category

A1*c

Attestation

Attested from early ME (and arguably late OE) mostly in the N and EM (see LAEME), but appears in texts from elsewhere by the early 13c and by later ME widespread across England; MnE dial usage north of Der. and Lin. and Dev.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 138, 156, 344 etc.; Pe 10, 13, 46 etc.; Cl 31, 129, 221 etc.; Pat 31,129, 221 etc.; Erk 12, 107, 116, etc.; WA 56, 136, 139 etc.

The Gaw MS reads for at 1440 and 1863 and is emended in most editons, although the ms reading has also been defended.

Bibliography

MED from (prep.) , MED from (adv.) , OED fro (prep., adv. and conj.) , HTOED , EDD fro (prep. and adv.), Dance fro (a)(prep.), Bj. 100–101, SPS 65–7, 298–9, CV frá, de Vries frá, Mag. frá, Bj-L. fram, Orel *frama, AEW fram (1, 2)