broþor

Forms

brōþor m^[1] Vespasian Psalter gloss: broður, dative broeðer.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *brōþer, from Proto-Germanic *brōþēr (“brother”).^[1] The Proto-Germanic noun is continued in Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐍉𐌸𐌰𐍂 (broþar), Old Norse bróðir, Old Frisian brōther, Old Saxon brōthar and Old High German bruodar.^[4][5][6]

It goes back to the Proto-Indo-European word for brother, Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr, which Kroonen writes *bʰreh₂-ter-.^[1][4] The word is found across the Indo-European languages: Latin frāter, Old Irish bráthair, Ancient Greek φράτηρ (phrátēr, “member of a brotherhood”) and Lithuanian brólis are among the forms Kroonen and Orel list.^[4][5] Etymonline calls it a stable word across the family.^[7]

In Old English it is an r-stem: the dative singular is ⟨brēðer⟩ and the nominative plural ⟨brōðor⟩ or ⟨brōðru⟩.^[8] Hogg and Fulk trace the dative ⟨brēðer⟩ to a form like *brōþri, whose ending lasted long enough to cause i-umlaut before it was lost.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the mid-ninth-century gloss of the Vespasian Psalter: Swe ðone nestan swe broður urne swe ic gelicie over “Sicut proximum sicut fratrem nostrum” of Psalm 34, “as the neighbour, as our brother, so I pleased”, and Sittende wið broeðer ðinum ðu teldes “sitting, you spoke against your brother” (Psalm 49).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the brother by blood, the word is used of a fellow man and of a fellow Christian, often in address, and of the members of a religious house.^[10] In the glosses it renders Latin “frater”.^[6] The collective ġebrōþor, ġebrōþru “brethren” is found beside the plural.^[11]

It became Middle English brother, now English brother.^[12][7]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – swe broður urne “as our brother” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[2][3]
• 890×897 – Broðor ne beo eower to fela lareowa “Brothers, let not too many of you be teachers”, quoting the apostle James, in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][3]
• s. ix/x – his broþor wæs Ecgbryht Eating ærcebiscep “his brother was Archbishop Ecgberht Eating” in the Parker Chronicle (annal 738).^[14][3]
• s. x/xi – the dative brēþer and plural brōðrum in the Beowulf manuscript.^[15][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a brother by blood.^[11][6]
2. a fellow man; a fellow Christian, often in address.^[10]
3. a monk, a member of a religious community.^[10]

Word family

• ġebrōþor
• fōsterbrōþor
• fæderenbrōþor
• wedbrōþor

Descendants

• Middle English brother (→ English brother; Middle Scots brother)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
3. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 79
5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 57
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. brōþor
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.91
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.93
10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 107
11. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 128
12. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 83
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
16. ^ Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. brōðor