Alternative forms

• brotha, brudda (Jamaica, African-American Vernacular)
• brothah, brothuh
• bruvver (Cockney, MLE)
• broth'r (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#BROTHERCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#BROTHER broder, brodir, brother, brothir, broþer, broðer, from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#BROTHERCategory:English terms derived from Old English#BROTHER brōþor, brōþur, brōðer, brōður, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHERCategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHER *brōþer, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#BROTHERCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#BROTHER *brōþēr (“brother”), from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European#BROTHERCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#BROTHER *bʰréh₂tēr (“brother”). Doublet of bhai, bru, frater, friar, pal, and vaiCategory:English doublets#BROTHER.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʌðə/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BROTHER
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʌðɚ/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BROTHER

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#BROTHER
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɐðə/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʊðə/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʊðəɹ/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
  • (Dublin) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʊdəɹ/, /ˈbɹʊdɐ/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʌðəɹ/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
• (th-fronting) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹʌvə(ɹ)/Category:English 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
• Rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)Category:Rhymes:English/ʌðə(ɹ)#BROTHERCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌðə(ɹ)/2 syllables#BROTHER

Noun

brother (plural brothers or (archaic in most senses) brethren)Category:English lemmas#BROTHERCategory:English nouns#BROTHERCategory:English countable nouns#BROTHERCategory:English nouns with irregular plurals#BROTHERCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

2. Son of the same parents as another person.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

3. A male having at least one parent in common with another person (see half-brother, stepbrother).
4. A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
   • 1975, New King James Version, Deuteronomy 23:19

     You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.

   Thank you, brother.Category:English terms with usage examples#BROTHER

   I would like to thank the brother who just spoke.Category:English terms with usage examples#BROTHER

6. (informalCategory:English informal terms#BROTHER) A form of address to a man.

   Hyponym: my brother in Christ

   Brother, can you spare a dime?

   Category:English terms with usage examples#BROTHER

   Listen, brother, I don't know what you want, but I’m not interested.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#BROTHER

7. (African-American VernacularCategory:African-American Vernacular English#BROTHER) A fellow black man.
   • 1987, Eddie Murphy Raw, spoken by Eddie Murphy:

     [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!”

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

   • 1991 January, SPIN, volume 6, number 10, page 58:

     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, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 148:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

   • 2013, Gwyneth Bolton, Ready for Love:

     But damn if they knew when to just leave a brother alone and let him sulk in silence.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

8. Somebody, usually male, connected by a common cause, situation, or affection.
   • 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 2016, William Burkholder, The City of My Brothers:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

9. Someone who is a peer, whether male or female.
   • 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:

     And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

10. (poeticCategory:English poetic terms#BROTHER) Someone who is a kinsman or shares the same patriarch.
    • 1995, Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture, page 89:

      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).

      Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

    • 1908 June, Grace Kellogg, “A Keeper of the Door”, in National Magazine, volume 28, page 280:

      Oh, my Brothers, five nights ago many of our braves were out upon the buffalo grounds.

      Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

    • 2010, Justin B. Richland, Sarah Deer, Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies, page 193:

      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.

      Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

    • 2020, Xiao Xiao Ma Jia Hao, Three Kingdoms: Super Hegemon:

      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.

      Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

Verb

brother (third-person singular simple present brothers, present participle brothering, simple past and past participle brothered)Category:English lemmas#BROTHERCategory:English verbs#BROTHERCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#BROTHER) To treat as a brother.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     Seest thou not we are overreached, and that our proposed mode of communicating with our friends without has been disconcerted by this same motley gentleman thou art so fond to brother?

     Category:English terms with quotations#BROTHER

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

Interjection

brotherCategory:English lemmas#BROTHERCategory:English interjections#BROTHERCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. Expressing exasperation.

   We're being forced to work overtime? Oh, brother!Category:English terms with usage examples#BROTHER

Alternative forms

• broder, brodir, brodyr, brothir, brothre, brothur, broþer, broþir, broþre, broþur
• broiþer, bruther (Northern)
• broðer (Early Middle English); broþerr (Ormulum)

Etymology

Inherited from Old EnglishCategory:Middle English terms inherited from Old English#BROTHERCategory:Middle English terms derived from Old English#BROTHER brōþor, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHERCategory:Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHER *brōþer, from Proto-GermanicCategory:Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#BROTHERCategory:Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#BROTHER *brōþēr, from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European#BROTHERCategory:Middle English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#BROTHER *bʰréh₂tēr. Doublet of frereCategory:Middle English doublets#BROTHER. Forms with /d/ both represent a phonological development and analogy with fader (“father”), moder (“mother”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbroːðər/, /ˈbroːdər/Category:Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER

Noun

brotherCategory:Middle English lemmas#BROTHERCategory:Middle English nouns#BROTHERCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER (plural bretheren or brether or brotheren, genitive singular brother or brotheres)

1. A brother or brother-in-law; a male sibling.
   • c. 1180, Orͬm, “[Dedication]”, in Orͬmulum (Bodleian MS. Junius 1), Bourne Abbey, Lincolnshire, folio 3, recto; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 10 January 2019:

     Nu broþerr Ƿallꞇ͛. broþerͬ min. Affꞇ͛ þe flæsheſſ kĩde⹎ ⁊ broþerͬ mın ı crıſſtenndom. Þurrh fulluhht⹎ ⁊ þurrh troꟕþe⹎ ⁊ broþerr mın ı ꟑodeſſ huſ […]

     Now, Brother Walter, my brother by blood relation and in Christendom, through baptism and faith, and my brother in God's house […]

     Category:Middle English terms with quotations#BROTHER

2. A blood brother; a companion in a two-member loyalty pact.
3. Any male relative or family member.
4. A colleague or peer (sometimes as a term of address):
   1. A fellow (male) human being.
   2. A male friend or companion.
   3. A male fellow Christian (or other coreligionist).
      • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎, published c. 1410, Apocalips 1:9, folio 117, verso, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

        I ioon ȝoure bꝛoþer ⁊ partener in tribulacioun ⁊ kingdom ⁊ pacience in criſt iheſu .· was in an ile þat is clepid pathmos · foꝛ þe woꝛd of god · ⁊ foꝛ þe witneſſyng of iheſu

        I, John, your brother and partner in tribulation, the Kingdom, and endurance in Jesus Christ, was on an island that's called Patmos for the word of God and for the witnessing of Jesus.

        Category:Middle English terms with quotations#BROTHER

   4. A male fellow member of a guild or religious order.
   5. (rareCategory:Middle English terms with rare senses#BROTHER) A male fellow ruler.
5. Something similar or resemblant.

Alternative forms

• broder, brodir, brodyr, brodyre, brothyre, bruder, brudir, bruther, bruthir

Etymology

Inherited from Early ScotsCategory:Middle Scots terms inherited from Early Scots#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots terms derived from Early Scots#BROTHER brothir, from Old EnglishCategory:Middle Scots terms inherited from Old English#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots terms derived from Old English#BROTHER brōþor, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:Middle Scots terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHER *brōþer, from Proto-GermanicCategory:Middle Scots terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots terms derived from Proto-Germanic#BROTHER *brōþēr, from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:Middle Scots terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#BROTHER *bʰréh₂tēr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbrøːðər/, /ˈbrøːdər/Category:Middle Scots terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER

Noun

brother (plural brether or brethren)Category:Middle Scots lemmas#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots nouns#BROTHERCategory:Middle Scots entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. A brother; a male sibling.
2. A colleague or companion.
3. A fellow member of an organisation.

References

• “brother, bruther”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “broder, bruder”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.

Etymology

From Proto-West GermanicCategory:Old Frisian terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHERCategory:Old Frisian terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#BROTHER *brōþer.

Noun

brōther mCategory:Old Frisian lemmas#BROTHERCategory:Old Frisian nouns#BROTHERCategory:Old Frisian entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Old Frisian masculine nouns#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. brother

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:Portuguese terms borrowed from English#BROTHERCategory:Portuguese terms derived from English#BROTHER brother. Doublet of frade, freire, frei, bro, and bradaCategory:Portuguese doublets#BROTHER.

Pronunciation

Noun

brother m (plural brothers)Category:Portuguese lemmas#BROTHERCategory:Portuguese nouns#BROTHERCategory:Portuguese countable nouns#BROTHERCategory:Portuguese entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Portuguese masculine nouns#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. (slangCategory:Portuguese slang#BROTHER) bro (close friend)

   Esse cara é o meu brother. ― That guy is my bro.Category:Portuguese terms with usage examples#BROTHER

Noun

brotherCategory:Scots lemmas#BROTHERCategory:Scots nouns#BROTHERCategory:Scots entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. alternative form of brither

References

• “brother, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 23 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.

Etymology

Borrowed from EnglishCategory:Spanish terms borrowed from English#BROTHERCategory:Spanish terms derived from English#BROTHER brother.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɾodeɾ/ [ˈbɾo.ð̞eɾ]Category:Spanish 2-syllable words#BROTHERCategory:Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation#BROTHER
• Rhymes: -odeɾCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/odeɾ#BROTHERCategory:Rhymes:Spanish/odeɾ/2 syllables#BROTHER
• Syllabification: bro‧ther

Noun

brother m (plural brothers)Category:Spanish lemmas#BROTHERCategory:Spanish nouns#BROTHERCategory:Spanish terms spelled with TH#BROTHERCategory:Spanish countable nouns#BROTHERCategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#BROTHERCategory:Spanish masculine nouns#BROTHERCategory:Pages with entries#BROTHERCategory:Pages with 7 entries#BROTHER

1. (colloquialCategory:Spanish colloquialisms#BROTHER, USCategory:United States Spanish#BROTHER, Puerto RicoCategory:Puerto Rican Spanish#BROTHER, HondurasCategory:Honduran Spanish#BROTHER, El SalvadorCategory:Salvadoran Spanish#BROTHER, NicaraguaCategory:Nicaraguan Spanish#BROTHER, BoliviaCategory:Bolivian Spanish#BROTHER, SpainCategory:Peninsular Spanish#BROTHER) bro, dude, brother

   Synonyms: (vulgar) cabrón, manoCategory:Spanish links with manual fragments#BROTHER

Further reading

• “brother”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010