Broþer

Broþer is the Old English spelling of the word "brother," written with the letter thorn (þ) to represent the dental fricative in early English orthography. In modern English, the corresponding form is "brother," with the digraph th replacing the thorn. The Old English form is found in early medieval manuscripts and reflects the common Germanic kinship term that names a male sibling.

Etymology and cognates: Broþer derives from Proto-Germanic *broþēr and is cognate with German Bruder, Dutch broer, Danish bror, and Icelandic bróðir. All descend from a Proto-Indo-European root for "brother." The pronunciation would have been roughly similar to the modern "brother," with the final -er typically unstressed. The orthography shows thorn usage; over time thorn fell out of general use in English, and the "th" digraph became standard by the early modern period.

Modern usage: Today, broþer appears primarily in linguistic, philological, or historical discussions about Old English spelling and language development. It may also be encountered in scholarly editions that mark archaic forms, or in fiction seeking to evoke a medieval atmosphere. In everyday English, the morpheme lives on in "brother," with semantic ties to kinship, solidarity, and religious or fraternal terms like "brethren" in certain contexts.