brotherly
/ˈbɹʌð.ɚ.li/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.92 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of or characteristic of brothers.
Example Sentences
- "brotherly love"
- "Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate; but the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity."
- "They are modelling in parvo around them the predestined Greater America of the mightier, holier, brotherlier comradeship which it seems America has been called into being to bring to pass for the world:— […]"
- "Praising and pleading him, / Lovingly needing him, / Brotherly feeding him, / Preaching and speeding him, / Blessing, succeeding Him, / Thus is the Master near,— / Thus is He here!"
- "I might have seen him, and talked with him brotherly, face to face."
- ""What honest man, who is not insane, would take lost women and thieves into his house to dwell with him sisterly and brotherly?""
Etymology
From Middle English brotherly, from Old English brōþorlīċ, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþerlīk, from Proto-Germanic *brōþērlīkaz, equivalent to brother + -ly (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Dutch broederlijk (“brotherly”), German brüderlich (“brotherly”), Swedish broderlig (“brotherly”). Piecewise doublet of friarly.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: brotherly, brōþorlīċ, *brōþerlīk, *brōþērlīkaz
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɹʌð.ɚ.li/
- British English: /ˈbɹʌð.ə.li/
Inflected Forms
more brotherly (comparative)
brotherlier (comparative)
most brotherly (superlative)
brotherliest (superlative)