brotherly meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

brotherly

adj

UK /ˈbɹʌð.ə.li/ · US /ˈbɹʌð.ɚ.li/

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.

Of or characteristic of brothers.

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.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 115:

1 more example

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:— […]1908, Richard de Bary, “Social Conversion”, in The Land of Promise: An Account of the Material and Spiritual Unity of America, London; […]: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 297:

Derived terms: brotherliness, brotherly love, unbrotherly
Related terms: brother, brotherhood

brotherly

adv

Etymology From Middle English brotherly, equivalent to brother + -ly (adverbial suffix).

In the manner of a brother, as a brother, as brothers.

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!1879, Bayard Taylor, Studies in German Literature, page 355:
I might have seen him, and talked with him brotherly, face to face.1881, William Dean Howells, A Fearful Responsibility: And Other Stories, page 159:

4 more examples

"What honest man, who is not insane, would take lost women and thieves into his house to dwell with him sisterly and brotherly?"1908 February 19, Jack London, The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
The people treat me brotherly here.1910, Elias Smith, Herald of Gospel Liberty, volume 102, page 346:
There was no way she'd be able to act brotherly/sisterly with him.2012, Laura Hilton, Promised To Another:
[…] he traverses planetary-romance versions of Venus and Mars, whups villains till they die, screws bad-ass tall women and acts brotherly to shorter women with bare breasts (it's all right to mention breasts if they belong to your sister) who die for him (even better, I guess), walks away.2016, John Clute, Canary Fever:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.