BROTHER  , a male

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

This latter idea is reproduced in those fraternal

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