frate

Forms

frate m (plural frati)^[1] Before personal names it is shortened to fra (also frà, fra’).^[2][3][4] Old forms include Old Italian fratre, northern frade and fradhe.^[5][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin frātrem (“brother”), with the second /r/ lost by dissimilation.^[6][7][2] Others take it instead from the nominative and vocative, which keep that /r/, used as a form of address like the dialect words for father and mother in Lazio and Campania;^[6][3] Rohlfs cites the form in an African inscription of 361.^[6][3] DEI dates the religious sense from the end of the 4th century.^[8]

The same word is Romanian frate, French frère, Occitan fraire, Sardinian frade and Friulian frari.^[2][9] The Occitan form spread with monasticism to Catalan and Ibero-Romance, where Spanish fraile and Portuguese freire mean “friar” and the brother is hermano or irmão, from Latin germānus.^[2][9] Italian too long had that rival: according to Aebischer the phrase germānus frāter (“full brother”) belonged to the region of Rome, and the Italian word only prevailed between the 10th and 12th centuries.^[6]

The Latin noun is from Proto-Italic *frātēr and Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr (“brother”).^[1][10] Its cognates include Old Irish bráthir, Ancient Greek φράτηρ (phrátēr, “member of a brotherhood”), Old High German bruoder, English brother and Lithuanian brólis.^[10][2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Ritmo di sant'Alessio from the Marche, of the second half of the 12th century.^[5] The old sense was “brother”, as in Francis of Assisi, before 1226: Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per frate vento (“Praised be you, my Lord, through Brother Wind”).^[6][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The title frate given to the members of the new religious orders narrowed the word to Church use, and fratello took over the ordinary sense “brother”.^[6][2] DELI's first record of the religious sense is in Brunetto Latini, before 1294.^[6] Dante still uses frate for a brother (Moronto fu mio frate ed Eliseo) and as a warm form of address (O dolce frate, che vuo’ tu ch’io dica?).^[12][13] His frati gaudenti were the knights of the Blessed Virgin Mary.^[14][12]

From the shape of a friar's hood came the roof tile that lets light into an attic (1731) and the silkworm that spins a faulty cocoon on the mat (1811).^[6] The birds fratino (1829) and fraticello (1831) are named after the colour of a friar's habit.^[6] Fixed phrases include va’ a farti frate!, a polite way of telling someone to go away, and stare coi frati e zappar l’orto, to fall in with what others decide.^[14][4]

English borrowed frate in 1722 and German in 1876.^[15]

Timeline

• Second half of the 12th century – Ritmo di sant'Alessio.^[5]
• Before 1226 – Francis of Assisi uses frate “brother”.^[6][7]
• 1278–1279 – Fratesco names a kind of cloth.^[6]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses frate “friar”.^[6][15]
• 1722 – English frate is recorded.^[15]
• 1731 – The roof-tile sense in the fourth Crusca dictionary.^[6]
• 1811 – The silkworm sense is recorded.^[6]
• 1876 – German Frate is recorded.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A friar, a member of a religious order, especially a mendicant one: frate francescano, frate cappuccino;^[7][14][3] farsi frate, to become a friar.^[7][14][3]
2. A title before the name of a friar (usually shortened to fra).^[16][4]
3. (historical) The title of the professed knights of the Order of Malta.^[7][14]
4. (archaic, literary) Brother; friend, companion.^[7][14][12]
5. (building) A raised roof tile shaped like a hood, letting light or air into an attic.^[7][14][12]
6. (sericulture) A silkworm that, not moved to the brush in time, spins a faulty cocoon on the mat.^[7][14]
7. (printing) A part of a printed sheet left blank or badly inked.^[7][14][3]

Word family

• fratesco
• fraticello
• fratina
• fratino
• sfratarsi
• confrate
• fratone
• fratacchione

Related words

• fra
• fratello
• fraterno
• confraternita
• Latin frater

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1709
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana