FRATER

See also:

• HOUSE
• HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in Gothic it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

HOUSE FRATER  Or FRATERY, a term in architecture for the hall where the members of a monastery or friary met for meals or refreshment . The word is by origin the same as " refectory." The older forms, such as freitur, fraytor and the like, show the word to be an adaptation of the O.Fr. fraitour, a shortened form of refraitour, from the Med . Lat. refectorium . The word has been confused with frater, a brother or friar, and hence sometimes confined in meaning to the dining-hall of a friary, while " refectory " is used of a monastery .