broþor

broþor is the Old English noun for “brother.” It is the direct ancestor of the modern English word brother. The form typically appears as broþor or brōþor in manuscripts, because Old English used the thorn letter (þ) to represent the “th” sound; the macron over the vowel in some editions marks length. In Old English, it was a masculine noun within the strong noun class, with plural and genitive forms following the standard pattern of the era.

Etymology: broþor comes from Proto-Germanic *broþēr, which itself is traced to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrā́tēr. The word has cognates across the Indo-European languages, including Latin frater, Greek phrater, Old Norse bróðir, and the modern German Bruder and Dutch broer. The English development follows the Germanic branch, yielding the modern form brother.

Usage: The word appears in early English literature and religious texts, conveying kinship as a male sibling. In some contexts it also carried broader figurative senses, such as “fellow” or “comrade.” The term persisted into Middle English and, through changes in spelling and pronunciation, evolved into the contemporary form.

Legacy: In modern English, the spelling and pronunciation have been standardized as brother. The thorn letter has been replaced in most post-Old English orthography by the digraph th, a change that reflects broader shifts in English orthography and phonology. The word remains a core kinship term and continues to appear in historical and linguistic discussions of the English language and its Germanic roots.