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BROTHER

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 651 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BROTHER , a male See also:

person in his relation to the other See also:children of the same See also:father and See also:mother. " Brother " represents in See also:English the See also:Teutonic See also:branch of a word See also:common to the Indo-See also:European See also:languages, cf. Ger. Bruder, Dutch broeder, See also:Dan. and Swed. broder, &c. In See also:Celtic languages, Gaelic and Irish have brathair, and Welsh brawd; in See also:Greek the word is 4pe r17P, in See also:Lat. See also:frater, from which come the Romanic forms, Fr. See also:frere, Ital. fratello; the Span. fray, See also:Port. frei, like the Ital. frate, fra, are only used of " friars." The Span. hermano and the Port. irmao, the See also:regular words for brother, are from Lat. germanus, See also:born of the same father and mother. The See also:Sanskrit word is bhraldr, and the ultimate Indo-European See also:root is generally taken to be bhar, to See also:bear (cf. M. H. Ger. See also:barn, See also:Scot. bairn, See also:child, and such words as " See also:birth," " See also:burden "). " Brother " has often been loosely used of kinsmen generally, or for members of the sametribe; also for quite fictitious relationships, e.g. " See also:blood-See also:brothers," through a sacramental rite of mutual blood-tasting, " See also:foster-brothers," because suckled by the same See also:nurse. See also:Christianity, through the See also:idea of the universal fatherhood of See also:God, conceives all men as brothers; but in a narrower sense " the brethren " are the members of the See also:Church, or, in a narrower still, of a confraternity or " brotherhood " within the Church.

This latter idea is reproduced in those fraternal See also:

societies, e.g. the Freemasons, the members of which become " brothers " by See also:initiation. " Brother " is also used symbolically, as implying equality, by sovereigns in addressing one another, and also by bishops.

End of Article: BROTHER

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