brother
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹʌðə/
ipa: /ˈbɹʌðɚ/
ipa: /ˈbɹɐðə/
ipa: /ˈbɹʊðə/
ipa: /ˈbɹʊðəɹ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈbɹʊdəɹ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈbɹʊdɐ/
ipa: /ˈbɹʌðəɹ/
note: th-fronting
ipa: /ˈbɹʌvə(ɹ)/
rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
Forms: form: brothers
form: brethren
raw_tags: in most senses
form: brotha
form: brudda
form: brothah
form: brothuh
form: bruvver
form: broth'r
Etymology: PIE word
 *bʰréh₂tēr
Inherited from Middle English brother, from Old English brōþor, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþer, from Proto-Germanic *brōþēr, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr. Doublet of bhai, bru, frater, friar, pal, and vai.
Senses: examples: text: It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Son of the same parents as another person.
glosses: A male having at least one parent in common with another (see half-brother, stepbrother).
examples: text: You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.
ref: 1975, New King James Version, Deuteronomy 23:19
text: Thank you, brother.
text: I would like to thank the brother who just spoke.
glosses: A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
examples: text: Brother, can you spare a dime?
text: Listen, brother, I don't know what you want, but I’m not interested.
glosses: A form of address to a man.
examples: text: [Michael Jackson] went on television and said, “I don't have sex because of my religious beliefs”, and the public believed it. I know brothers was like “get the fuck out of here!”. And white people, “Michael's a special kinda guy!”
ref: 1987, Eddie Murphy Raw, spoken by Eddie Murphy:
text: SPIN: Aren't you both as popular with white people as black people?
L.L.: Oh, no question. But I've always said, that's why when people say, "L.L., hey, like, on the last album, you sold out," I say, "Yo, can I ask you a question, Mike Tyson sell out?" "No, he's a brother." I say, he's a cross-over artist. He went pop. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the rap audience [...] they have to understand that their music is for all people. Me personally, I don't think it's about being black or white, […]
ref: 1991 January, SPIN, volume 6, number 10, page 58:
text: The white cop grilled me. He was tall, but had a stomach like a pregnant woman. The other two were brothers, and they looked like they just didn't wanna be standing there.
ref: 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 148:
text: But damn if they knew when to just leave a brother alone and let him sulk in silence.
ref: 2013, Gwyneth Bolton, Ready for Love:
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: A fellow black man.
examples: text: The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.
ref: 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., (Please provide the book title or journal name):
text: O, then! To ride upon such glories, Till my time comes nigh, And commune in the city of peaceful slumbers Among my brothers of wind-blown rye.
ref: 2016, William Burkholder, The City of My Brothers:
glosses: Somebody, usually male, connected by a common cause, situation, or affection.
examples: text: And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.
ref: 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
glosses: Someone who is a peer, whether male or female.
examples: text: The eighteenth century text, with its antislavery message and its Adamic figuration, calls implicily for the reconciliation of all peoples as "brothers" (not the reprehensible brothers of Joseph but the cocreated brothers of Adam).
ref: 1995, Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture, page 89:
text: Oh, my Brothers, five nights ago many of our braves were out upon the buffalo grounds.
ref: 1908 June, Grace Kellogg, “A Keeper of the Door”, in National Magazine, volume 28, page 280:
text: In the case of the boy, a certain amount of instruction comes from the male members of the mother's clan, such as how to go after game, how to handle horses, how to dress, how to conduct yourself and what to seek in life. They also teach the boy how to treat domestic animals. Even pets understand kindness, and the clan brothers use that as an example.
ref: 2010, Justin B. Richland, Sarah Deer, Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies, page 193:
text: The carriage that the brothers of the Kai clan rode on had travelled a lot these past few days, and the horses that pulled the carriage were exhausted.
ref: 2020, Xiao Xiao Ma Jia Hao, Three Kingdoms: Super Hegemon:
glosses: Someone who is a kinsman or shares the same patriarch.
Hypernyms: sense: son of common parents
word: sibling
Coordinate terms: sense: with regards to gender
word: sister
Derived terms: sense: single words
word: brotherboy
sense: single words
word: brotherdom
sense: single words
word: brothered
sense: single words
word: brotherfucker
sense: single words
word: brotherfucking
sense: single words
word: brotherhood
sense: single words
word: brotherji
sense: single words
word: brotherless
sense: single words
word: brotherlike
sense: single words
word: brotherlocks
sense: single words
word: brotherly
sense: single words
word: brotherman
sense: single words
word: brotherness
sense: single words
word: brotherred
sense: single words
word: brothership
sense: single words
word: bruncle
sense: single words
word: co-brother
sense: single words
word: godbrother
sense: single words
word: merbrother
sense: single words
word: my brother in Christ
sense: single words
word: outbrother
sense: single words
word: swordbrother
sense: single words
word: unbrother
sense: single words
word: unbrothered
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: 3/4 brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: baby brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: big brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Big Brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: blood brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Bob's your father's brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Bob's your mother's brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother chip
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother from another mother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-german
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother german
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-husband
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-in-arms
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother in Christ
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother in law
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-in-law
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Brother Jonathan
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-officer
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-out-law
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-slayer
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: brother-zone
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Christian Brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: co-brother-in-law
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: cousin brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: cousin-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: everybody and his brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: everyone and his brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: everyone and their brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: everybody and their brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: foster brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: foster-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: full-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: good-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: half brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: half-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: half brother-in-law
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: kid brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: lay brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: little brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: milk brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: milk-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: oath-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: older brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Robert is your father's brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Robert is your mother's brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Robert's your father's brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Robert's your mother's brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: soul brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: stepbrother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: step-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: sugar brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: three-quarter brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: womb-brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: Xaverian Brother
sense: Compound words and expressions
word: younger brother
Related terms: fraternal
fraternity
friar