Wikimore

See also: Sister

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *swé

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥

Proto-Indo-European *su-h₁ésh₂-ōr?

Proto-Indo-European *swé

Proto-Indo-European *-sōr

?

Proto-Indo-European *swésōrder.

Proto-Germanic *swestēr

Proto-West Germanic *swester

Old English sweostor

Middle English suster

English sister

Inherited from Middle English suster, from Old English sweostor, from Proto-West Germanic *swester, from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr.

Doublet of sororCategory:English doublets#SISTER. Cognate with Scots sister, syster (“sister”), West Frisian sus, suster (“sister”), Dutch zuster (“sister”), German Schwester (“sister”), Norwegian Bokmål søster (“sister”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish syster (“sister”), Icelandic systir (“sister”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰𐍂 (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian сестра́ (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit स्वसृ (svásṛ, “sister”)Category:Sanskrit terms with non-redundant manual transliterations#SISTER, Persian (xâhar, “sister”).

In standard English, the form with i is due to contamination with Old Norse systir (“sister”).

The plural sistren is from Middle English Category:English terms inherited from Middle English#SISTER Category:English terms derived from Middle English#SISTER sistren, a variant plural of sister, suster (“sister”); compare brethren.

The sense for "Adelpha-genus butterfly" is a semantic loan from translingual Category:English semantic loans from Translingual#SISTER Category:English terms derived from Translingual#SISTER Adelpha, itself from Ancient Greek ἀδελφή (adelphḗ, “sister”).

Pronunciation

Noun

sister (plural sisters or (archaic in most senses) sistren)Category:English lemmas#SISTER Category:English nouns#SISTER Category:English countable nouns#SISTER Category:English nouns with irregular plurals#SISTER Category:English entries with incorrect language header#SISTER Category:Pages with entries#SISTER Category:Pages with 3 entries#SISTER

A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.
Synonym: sis (slang)

Antonym: brother

Hypernym: sibling

My sister is always driving me crazy.
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal Category:English informal terms#SISTER) a nun.
Synonym: nun

Coordinate terms: brother, friar, frater

Michelle left behind her bank job and became a sister at the local convent.
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
(UK Category:British English#SISTER) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.
Synonym: charge nurse
Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through the same biological sex, gender or common membership in a community, race, profession, religion, organization, or ism.
Connie was very close to her friend Judy and considered her to be her sister.
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
- 1985, “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves”, in Who’s Zoomin' Who?, performed by Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  Sisters are doing it for themselves / Standing on their own two feet
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
(African-American Vernacular Category:African-American Vernacular English#SISTER, slang Category:English slang#SISTER, sometimes capitalized) A black woman.
- 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 169:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  A fly sister rolled in with a suitcase full of hip-hop novels called The Glamorous Life, and an African brother with long dreads wanted to sell them some incense and some fake Jacob watches.
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
- 2009, Rajen Persaud, Why Black Men Love White Women, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 171:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  The short “naps” of the average Sister do not sway in the wind as that of a blonde.
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
- 2014, J. L. King, Full Circle: Loving. Living. Life. After The Down Low:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  And now, social media has made it worse. From Facebook to Twitter, I get all kinds of invitations. Recently a sister inboxed me on Facebook and told me that she knew for a fact that I wanted her and she wanted me.
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
(informal Category:English informal terms#SISTER) A form of address to a woman.
Synonyms: darling, dear, love, (US) lady, miss, (northern UK) pet

What’s up, sister?
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
- 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 13:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  "Listen, sister. I've got a job for you."
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
A female fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
Thank you, sister. I would like to thank the sister who just spoke.
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
(attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.
Synonyms: affiliate, affiliated

sister publication
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER

sister city
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER

sister projects
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
(computing theory Category:en:Theory of computing#SISTER) A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
(usually attributively) Something in the same class.
sister ships
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER

sister facility
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
- 2000, Dennis W. Stevenson, Jerrold I. Davis, John V. Freudenstein, Christopher R. Hardy, Mark P. Simmons, Chelsea D. Specht, “A phylogenetic analysis of the monocotyledons based on morphological and molecular character sets, with comments on the placement of Acorus and Hydatellaceae”, in Karen L[ouise] Wilson, David A. Morrison, editors, Monocots: Systematics and Evolution, Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, page 21, column 1:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  Within the ABCZ clade, Arecanae are sister of a group that includes all of the other taxa, and the latter fall into two major clades.
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
- 2006, Linguistics, number 401, page 11:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  Karimi (1999) and Cheng et al. (1997), among others, on the other hand, assume that specific objects are base-generated at SpecVP, whereas nonspecific objects are sister of V.
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
- 2016, Bruce M. Beehler, Thane K. Pratt, Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics, Princeton, N.J.; Woodstock, Oxon: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 220:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  The bee-eaters are sister to a clade that includes the rollers, ground-rollers, todies, motmots, and kingfishers (Cracraft 2013).
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
One of two tornados that form in close proximity at the same time or in quick succession.

Usage notes

In Roman Catholicism, a distinction is often drawn (especially by members of female religious orders) between nuns and sisters, the former being cloistered and devoted primarily to prayer, the latter being more active, doing work such as operating hospitals, caring for the poor, or teaching.
The plural sistren is no longer commonly used for biological sisters in contemporary English (although it was in the past) but may be found in some religious, feminist, or poetic usage.

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

→ Gulf Arabic: سِسْتَر (sistar, “female nurse”)
→ Japanese: シスター (shisutā)
→ Korean: 시스터 (siseuteo)

Translations

See sister/translations § Noun.

Verb

sister (third-person singular simple present sisters, present participle sistering, simple past and past participle sistered)Category:English lemmas#SISTER Category:English verbs#SISTER Category:English entries with incorrect language header#SISTER Category:Pages with entries#SISTER Category:Pages with 3 entries#SISTER

(transitive Category:English transitive verbs#SISTER, construction Category:en:Construction#SISTER) To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.
I’m trying to correct my sagging floor by sistering the joists.
Category:English terms with usage examples#SISTER
(obsolete Category:English terms with obsolete senses#SISTER, transitive Category:English transitive verbs#SISTER) To be sister to; to resemble closely.
- c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER
  Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes
  Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,
  That even her art sisters the natural roses;
  Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry
  Category:English terms with quotations#SISTER

This entry needs a photograph or drawing for illustration. Please try to find a suitable image on Wikimedia Commons or upload one there yourself! Particularly: "construction sense"

Category:Requests for images in English entries#SISTER