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Indo-European Lexicon

PIE Etymon and IE Reflexes

Below we display: a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) etymon adapted from Pokorny, with our own English gloss; our Semantic Field assignment(s) for the etymon, linked to information about the field(s); an optional Comment; and Reflexes (derived words) in various Indo-European languages, organized by family/group in west-to-east order where Germanic is split into West/North/East families and English, our language of primary emphasis, is artificially separated from West Germanic. IE Reflexes appear most often as single words with any optional letter(s) enclosed in parentheses; but alternative full spellings are separated by '/' and "principal parts" appear in a standard order (e.g. masculine, feminine, and neuter forms) separated by commas.

Reflexes are annotated with: Part-of-Speech and/or other Grammatical feature(s); a short Gloss which, especially for modern English reflexes, may be confined to the oldest sense; and some Source citation(s) with 'LRC' always understood as editor. Keys to PoS/Gram feature abbreviations and Source codes appear below the reflexes; at the end are links to the previous/next etyma [in Pokorny's alphabetic order] that have reflexes.

All reflex pages are currently under active construction; as time goes on, corrections may be made and/or more etyma & reflexes may be added.

Note: this page is for systems/browsers with Unicode^® support and fonts spanning the Unicode 3 character set relevant to Indo-European languages. Versions of this page rendered in alternate character sets are available via links (see Unicode 2 and ISO-8859-1) in the left margin.

Pokorny Etymon: bhrā́ter- 'brother, family member'

Semantic Fields: Brother; Relative(s)

Indo-European Reflexes:

Family/Language	Reflex(es)	PoS/Gram.	Gloss	Source(s)
Celtic
Old Irish:	brāthir	n	brother	GED
Irish:	brathair	n.masc	brother	ASD
Welsh:	brodyr/brawd	n.masc	brother	ASD
English
Old English:	brōðor/brōðer/brōder	n.masc	brother	GED/ASD
	gebrōðra/gebrōðru/gebrōðro	n.masc.pl	brethren	LRC
Middle English:	boy	n	boy	W7
	brother	n	brother	W7
	confrere	n	confrere	W7
	fraternal	adj	fraternal	W7
	fratricide	n	fratricide	W7
	frere/fryer	n	friar	W7
English:	boy	n	male child	IEW
	brethren	n.pl	brothers	W7
	brother	n	male sibling	AHD/W7
	bully	n	habitually cruel/overbearing person	AHD
	confrere	n	comrade, colleague	AHD/W7
	Fra	prop.n	Brother (religious title)	AHD/W7
	fraternal	adj	re: brothers	AHD/W7
	fraternity	n	guild, brotherhood	AHD/W7
	fraternize	vb	to mingle/associate as brothers	AHD/W7
	fratricide	n	one who kills a sibling	AHD/W7
	friar	n	member of mendicant order	AHD/W7
	pal	n	partner	AHD/W7
	phratry	n	brotherhood, (religious) clan/tribe	AHD/W7
American English:	bro	n.sl	brother	LRC
British English:	fraternise	vb	to fraternize	LRC
W-Germanic
Old Frisian:	brōther/broder	n.masc	brother	GED/ASD
Frisian:	boi	n	boy	W7
Dutch:	broeder	n.masc	brother	ASD
Old Saxon:	brōðar	n.masc	brother	GED
	gibroðar	n.pl	brethren	ASD
Old High German:	bruoder/bruodor/brōdar	n.masc	brother	GED/ASD
	gapruoder	n.pl	brethren	ASD
Middle High German:	bruoder	n.masc	brother	ASD
German:	Bruder	n.masc	brother	ASD
	Gebrüder	n.pl	brethren	ASD
N-Germanic
Old Norse:	bróðir/bródir	n.masc	brother	ASD
Old Icelandic:	brōðir	n.masc	brother	GED
Danish:	broder	n.masc	brother	ASD
Swedish:	broder	n.masc	brother	ASD
	bror	n	brother	TLL
E-Germanic
Gothic:	broþar	n.wk.masc	brother	GED
Crimean Gothic:	bruder	n.masc	brother	GED
Italic
Latin:	frāter, frātris	n.masc	brother	GED
	fraternus	adj	fraternal, re: brother	W7
	fratricida	n.fem	fratricide	W7
	fratricidium	n.neut	killing of a brother	W7
Medieval Latin:	confrater	n.masc	confrere, fellow, brother	W7
	fraternalis	adj	fraternal, re: brother	W7
Old French:	frere	n.masc	friar, brother	W7
Middle French:	confrere	n.masc	confrere, member of same fraternity	W7
	fratricide	n.masc	killing of a brother	W7
Italian:	Fra	prop.n.masc	Fra [religious title]	W7
	frate	n.masc	friar, monk	W7
Baltic
Old Prussian:	brote, brāti	n	brother	GED
Lithuanian:	brólis	n.masc	brother	GED
	broter-èlis	n	brother	GED
Latvian:	bràlis	n	brother	GED
Slavic
Old Church Slavonic:	brat(r)ъ	n.masc	brother	GED
	brat(r)ъja	n	phratry	GED
Russian:	brat	n	brother	LRC
Hellenic
Hesychius' Greek Lexicon:	φρᾱτρία	n.fem	phratry	GED
	φρήτηρ	n	phratry member	GED
Doric:	πάτρα	n.fem	phratry	LS
Ionic:	φρήτρη	n.fem	phratry	LS
Homeric Greek:	φράτρα	n.fem	phratry, people of kindred race	GED
Attic:	φρατρία	n.fem	phratry	LS
Greek:	φράτηρ/φράτωρ	n.masc	brother, clansman, phratry member	LRC
	φράτρα	n.fem	phratry	GED
Armenian
Classical Armenian:	ełbayr	n	brother	LRC
Iranian
Old Persian:	brātā	n	brother	GED
Avestan:	bhrātar-	n	brother	LRC
	brātā	n	brother	GED
Indic
Sanskrit:	bhrā́tar-	n	brother	LRC
	bhrā́tā	n	brother	GED
	bhrātrám	n	phratry	GED
	bhrātryam	n	phratry	GED
Romani:	ph(r)al	n	brother, friend	W7
Tocharian
Tocharian B:	pracer	n	brother	LRC
	procer	n	brother	GED
Tocharian A:	pracar	n	brother	GED

Key to Part-of-Speech/Grammatical feature abbreviations:

Abbrev.		Meaning
adj	=	adjective
fem	=	feminine (gender)
masc	=	masculine (gender)
n	=	noun
neut	=	neuter (gender)
pl	=	plural (number)
prop	=	proper
sl	=	slang
vb	=	verb
wk	=	weak (inflection)

Key to information Source codes (always with 'LRC' as editor):

Code		Citation
AHD	=	Calvert Watkins: The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed. (2000)
ASD	=	Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898)
GED	=	Winfred P. Lehmann: A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1986)
IEW	=	Julius Pokorny: Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959)
LRC	=	Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin
LS	=	Liddell and Scott: Greek-English Lexicon, 7th-9th ed's (1882-1940), rev.
TLL	=	Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language (1944)
W7	=	Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1963)

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