fraternal
/frəˈtəːn(ə)l
/adjective
1Of or like a brother or brothers: his lack of fraternal feeling shocked me...
- Again and again, the treacherous brother in the fraternal allegory puts personal, material ambition over ‘natural’ family loyalty, law and order, spiritual and communal values.
- Despite John's objections to psychological explanations, the mother functions as the sexualized prize and arbiter in this fraternal rivalry when the brothers come to blows on her doorstep.
- Monogamy is the norm, although some Tibetan-speaking peoples practice fraternal polyandry (two brothers may marry the same woman).
1.1Of or denoting an organization for people, especially men, that have common interests or beliefs: a network of political clubs and fraternal organizations...
- If you don't have access to employer-provided health care, join a fraternal or professional organization to get access to insurance at group rates.
- The project team recruited potential study participants by working with churches, community and fraternal organizations, funeral homes, African American businesses, and universities.
- Later, Romanian immigrants gathered at the headquarters of mutual aid societies and fraternal organizations where they discussed news from Romania, read or wrote letters, and sang religious or popular songs.
2(Of twins) developed from separate ova and therefore genetically distinct and not necessarily of the same sex or more similar than other siblings. Compare with identical (sense 1).A study of identical and fraternal twins separated at birth and adopted into different families showed the same heritability....
- Ordinary siblings and fraternal twins have only 50 percent of their genes in common.
- Identical twins have the same genotype, while fraternal twins share on average only 50% of the same genes.
Derivatives
fraternalism
- This instinct manifests itself throughout our culture: nationalism, regionalism, religion, fraternalism, sports fans, loyalty to your school, and racism.
- Have we become too accustomed to it, wrongly seeing in it a symbol for joy and fraternalism?
- This may be seen today in corporate uniforms (airlines, hotels), identification badges, shoulder-tabs, and arm-bands; regimental and old school ties are merely rose-tinted nostalgia for lost fraternalism.
fraternally
/ adverb ...- So often when he makes a pronouncement, you find the phrase, ‘I fraternally invite my brother bishops.’
- Noel ends by thanking the audience for being ‘mega’, and fraternally urges them not to hurt themselves on the way home.
- Leaving behind distrust, we must meet, know one another better, learn to love one another, and work together fraternally as much as possible.
Origin
Late Middle English: from medieval Latin fraternalis, from Latin fraternus, from frater 'brother'.
friar from Middle English:
This is from Old French frere, from Latin frater ‘brother’, source also of such words as fraternal (Late Middle English) and fraternity (Late Middle English).