hermano

Forms

hermano m (plural hermanos, feminine hermana, feminine plural hermanas)^[1] The earliest spelling is iermano (938, also in the Glosas Silenses), then ermano (a charter of 1127, the Cantar de mio Cid); the feminine is iermana in 1019 and ermana in 1095.^[2][3] Aragonese of Ribagorza has chermano and chermá, and Sobrarbe xerman.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin germānus (“of the same parents; genuine”), short for frāter germānus (“brother by the same father and mother”); the Old Spanish forms were iermano and ermano.^[2][4][5][1] In Latin the adjective meant “true, genuine” and was used of things and animals as well as people, but it soon came to be used mainly of kinship; this adjectival use survives in primo hermano “first cousin”.^[2] Already in classical Latin the adjective alone could mean “brother”, as in Virgil and Cornelius Nepos.^[2][6] It displaced the inherited word for “brother”, Old Spanish fradre, from frāter.^[1][3]

The replacement was complete only in the Iberian Peninsula: Portuguese irmão, Galician irmán and Catalan germà continue the same word.^[2][3] Medieval documents of Italy also prefer this word and its feminine from the 8th to the 12th century, but Italian later settled on fratello, and French kept frère.^[2] The idea that the Latin word for “brother” was given up because it had come to mean “monk” is uncertain, Corominas says, but he finds some truth in it, since nouns for a friar such as fraile are general only in the languages that adopted a substitute for “brother”, and he compares Greek ἀδελφός (adelphós) replacing φράτηρ (phrátēr).^[2] For the loss of the initial consonant in the Portuguese form, Nascentes suggests the word's frequent position after a possessive, where the consonant stood between vowels.^[7]

The Latin adjective is derived from germen (“sprout, bud”).^[5][6][1] The noun goes back to an older *genmen, from *ǵénh₁mn̥ (“offspring, seed”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form iermano in a charter of 938 and in the Glosas Silenses;^[3] ermano follows in a charter of 1127 and in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][4][3] From the start it means “brother”, a son of the same parents.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's time doze hermanos “twelve brothers” was also the name of a game played on a board with twelve pieces.^[8] Covarrubias in 1611 says that allies and confederates call each other hermanos, that religious orders give the name to lay brothers, and records the proverb entre hermanos no metas tus manos.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds its use between brothers-in-law and as a humble form of address to a beggar (perdone, hermano).^[10] The Academy's dictionaries list the figurative senses: a member of a religious order, of a brotherhood, a thing similar to another.^[11][5]

In much of Latin America hermano also means a close friend, and is a friendly form of address between men.^[12][13][14] In Costa Rica it was recorded for a ghost, and in New Mexico hermano mayor is the head of a Penitente brotherhood.^[15][16] The shortened form mano passed into Tagalog as mano and manong.^[1]

Timeline

• 938 – first record, spelt iermano, in a charter.^[2][4]
• 1019 – the feminine iermana.^[2]
• 1065 – coniermana “first cousin”, later cormano.^[2]
• 1127 – the spelling ermano in a charter.^[2]
• 1185 – the derivative hermandad in a Mozarabic charter.^[2][4]
• 1283 – Alfonso X's book of games names the board game doze hermanos.^[8]
• 1547 – the verb hermanar.^[4]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias, under ermano, gives the proverb entre hermanos no metas tus manos.^[9]
• 1720 – the derivative hermanastro.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. germanus”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. brother, (feminine hermana) sister: a person or animal that has the same father and mother as another, or only one of them.^[5][1]
2. A form of address between brothers-in-law.^[5]
3. A lay brother of a religious community.^[5]
4. A fellow member of a religious order, or a fellow Christian.^[5][18]
5. A person admitted by a religious community to share in certain graces and privileges.^[5]
6. A member of a hermandad or cofradía.^[5]
7. A thing similar to another: Estas dos lámparas son hermanas.^[5]
8. (Latin America, informal) A close friend; a friendly form of address, “bro”: ¿Qué pasa, hermano?^[12][1]

Adjective

1. Of things: having the same origin: lenguas hermanas, pueblos hermanos.^[19]

Word family

• hermanar
• hermanastro
• hermandad
• cormano
• medio hermano
• primo hermano
• hermanito

Related words

• hermanable
• fray
• fraile
• germanía
• Latin germanus
• Portuguese irmão
• Catalan germà

Usage notes

Phrases include medio hermano “half-brother”, hermano de leche “foster brother” and primo hermano “first cousin”, the last keeping the old adjectival sense “full, genuine”.^[1][2][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 347
3. ^ a b c d e f García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3080
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hermano
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. hermano
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. irmão
8. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. hermano
9. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 757
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 144
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 465
12. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. hermano
13. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. hermano
14. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. hermano
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 466
16. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 102
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. hermano
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 561
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hermano
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. hermano