Link Centre Dictionary

brother

brot·her

UK/ˈbɹʌðə/ US/ˈbɹʌðɚ/ very common informal

noun

1.

a male with the same parents as someone else

  • “my brother still lives with our parents”
Antonyms
2.

a male person who is a fellow member (of a fraternity or religion of other group)

  • “none of his brothers would betray him”
3.

a close friend who accompanies his buddies in their activities

4.

used as a term of address for those male persons engaged in the same movement

  • “Greetings, comrade!”
Synonyms
5.

(Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a monk and used as form of address

  • “a Benedictine Brother”

Origin

PIE word *bʰréh₂tēr Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr Proto-Germanic *brōþēr Proto-West Germanic *brōþer Old English brōþor Middle English brother English brother Inherited from Middle English broder, brodir, brother, brothir, broþer, broðer, from Old English brōþor, brōþur, brōðer, brōður, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþer, from Proto-Germanic *brōþēr (“brother”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr (“brother”). Doublet of bhai, bru, frater, friar, pal, and vai. Cognates Cognate with Scots breeder, bridder, brither, broder, brother, bruther (“brother”), Yola brover, brower (“brother”), North Frisian brouder, bruler, Bröđer (“brother”), Saterland Frisian Brour, Brúur (“brother”), West Frisian broer (“brother”), Alemannic German briöder, bruder, brueder, bröder, Brüeder, Brüädär (“brother”), Bavarian pruadar, prueder, pruider (“brother”), Central Franconian Broder (“brother”), Cimbrian pruadar, pruudar (“brother”), Dutch broeder, broer (“brother”), German Bruder (“brother”), German Low German Broor (“brother”), Limburgish broor, Broër (“brother”), Luxembourgish Brudder (“brother; monk”), Mòcheno pruader (“brother”), Vilamovian brüder (“brother”), Yiddish ברודער (brude...

Phrases

  • my brother in Christ single words

Related words

Word family

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.