FRANCS, FRANKIS, or FRANQUIS, a name which the Turks, Arabs, Greeks, &c. give to all the people of the western parts of Europe. The appellation is commonly supposed to have had its rise in Asia at the time of the crusades, when the French made the most considerable figure among the crusaders; from which time the Turks, Saracens, Greeks, Abyssinians, &c. used it as a common term for all the Christians of Europe; and called Europe itself Frankistan. The Arabs and Mahometans, says M. d'Herbelot, apply the term Franks not only to the French (to whom the name originally belonged), but to the Europeans in general.