brother

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.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Son of the same parents as another person.

A male having at least one parent in common with another (see half-brother, stepbrother).

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

1975, New King James Version, Deuteronomy 23:19

Thank you, brother.

I would like to thank the brother who just spoke.

A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

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

[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!”

1987, Eddie Murphy Raw, spoken by Eddie Murphy:

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, […]

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

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.

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

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

(African-American Vernacular) A fellow black man.

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.

1963, Martin Luther King Jr., (Please provide the book title or journal name):

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.

2016, William Burkholder, The City of My Brothers:

Somebody, usually male, connected by a common cause, situation, or affection.

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

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:

Someone who is a peer, whether male or female.

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).

1995, Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture, page 89:

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

(poetic) Someone who is a kinsman or shares the same patriarch.

en-noun

brother (plural brothers or (archaic in most senses) brethren)

brothers (plural)
brethren (archaic plural)

Bahamian Creole: bredda

Belizean Creole: breda

Bislama: brata

Cameroon Pidgin: bro̱da

Gullah: broda

desctree

Hawaiian Creole: braddah
→ English: braddah

Islander Creole English: broda

Kabuverdianu: bróda

Krio: brohda

Nicaraguan Creole: brada

Nigerian Pidgin: broda

Pichinglis: brɔda

Pijin: brata

Saramaccan: baáa

Sranan Tongo: brada
Aukan: baala
Saramaccan: baaa
→ Dutch: brada

Tok Pisin: brata, barata

→ Japanese: ブラザー

→ Korean: 브라더 (beuradeo)

→ Portuguese: brada, brother

弟弟

dai⁶⁻⁴ dai⁶⁻²

ağa

elder brother; in the northern dialect: aqa

ах дүү

brothers in general but including both elder and younger brothers

եղբայր

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, frater, friar, and pal.


brother

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?

en-verb

brother (third-person singular simple present brothers, present participle brothering, simple past and past participle brothered)

brothers (present singular third-person)
brothering (participle present)
brothered (participle past)
brothered (past)


brother

We're being forced to work overtime? Oh, brother!


brother

Nu bꝛoþerr Wallterr bꝛoþerr min / Affterr þe flæſheſſ kinde / ⁊ broþerr min i Criſſtendom / Þurrh fulluhht ⁊ þurrh trowwþe […]

c. 1200, Ormin, “Dedication”, in Ormulum, lines 1–4:

Now, brother Walter, my brother / by way of blood relation / and my brother in Christendom / through baptising and through faith […]

A brother or brother-in-law; a male sibling.

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

c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.), published c. 1410, Apocalips 1:9, page 117v, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

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.

A (Christian) man (i.e. as a "brother in life/brother in Christ").

A blood brother; one in a mutual pact of loyalty between two.

Another member of a religious community or order (when one is a member)

Another member of a guild or craft association (when one is a member)

A male individual who one has a close platonic relationship with.

(rare) One of one's peers as a ruler; (another) ruler.

(rare) A relative or family member who is a man.

(rare, alchemy) Something similar to something else.

enm-noun

brother (plural brether or brethren or brotheren or (rare) brothers, genitive brother or brothers)

brether (plural)
brethren (plural)
brotheren (plural)
brothers (plural rare)
brother (genitive)
brothers (genitive)

English: brother (see there for further descendants)

Scots: brither, bruther, broder, bruder

Yola: brover, brower

From Old English brōþor, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþer, from Proto-Germanic *brōþēr, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr. Doublet of frere.


brother

North Frisian:

Amrum: bruder

Föhr: bruler

Northern Goesharder: (Hoolmer) broor, (Hoorninger) brår

Southern Goesharder: brööðer

Hallig: bröör

Halunder: Bruur

Mooring: brouder

Sylt: Bröđer

desc

Saterland Frisian: Brúur, Brour (Strukelje)

West Frisian: broer


brother

Esse cara é o meu brother.

Borrowed from English brother. Doublet of frade, freire, frei, bro, and brada.