Fraternal

How to spell fraternal

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce fraternal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fraternal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to brothers or to a brotherly bond of friendship and loyalty.

Fraternal in a sentence

• The two veterans shared a deep fraternal bond after years of service together.

• The lodge operated as a fraternal organisation offering support to its members.

Where does fraternal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Fraternal comes from the Latin fraternus, meaning 'of a brother' or 'brotherly', which was built directly on frater, the ordinary Latin word for 'brother'. That root reaches far back into the shared Indo-European family, and it is a close cousin of the very same source that gave English its native word 'brother' through the Germanic line. English picked up fraternal in the 1400s, by way of the medieval Latin fraternalis, and used it first for relationships and feelings considered brotherly. From there it broadened to describe organisations and clubs whose members treated one another as brothers, and in the nineteenth century it attached to twins who develop from two separate eggs rather than one. The frater element also survives openly in 'fraternity' and 'fraternise', so remembering the Latin brother helps fix the single 't' and the -ernal ending in place.

How the word is built

• frater (Latin: brother)
• -al (adjective suffix)