Dictionary formfrater, fratris(masculine)
Translation
brother
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Grammar
Cases
| Case | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominativethe subject | frater | fratres |
| Vocativecalling someone: O ... | frater | fratres |
| Accusativethe direct object; after ad, in (into), per | fratrem | fratres |
| Genitiveof | fratris | fratrum |
| Dativeto, for | fratri | fratribus |
| Ablativeby, with, from; after a, ab, cum, de, e, ex, in (in), sine | fratre | fratribus |
Examples
.
My brother is away.
.
There were two brothers.
.
He wrote a letter to his brother.
amisit.
He lost his brother in the war.
, .
Brothers, listen to what I am about to say.
Frater, fratris is third declension masculine, and it belongs to a small family group that all shorten the -er of the nominative before the case endings: pater and patris, mater and matris, frater and fratris. Learn the three together and none of them will surprise you.
In classical Latin frater is a brother by blood, and a cousin is frater patruelis, "father's-brother's brother". Roman family vocabulary is more precise than ours about which side of the family a relative sits on, and this is the mild end of it.
The word ranks higher here than Caesar would explain. In monastic and ecclesiastical Latin fratres are the brethren of a community, the standard way of addressing a congregation, and the title of the friars (French frere, English friar, both from this word). A corpus that mixes the classical authors with the Church lifts frater several dozen places. It is a straight Indo-European cognate of English brother rather than a loan, and it gives fraternal, fraternity and fratricide.
Where this fits
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Latin · Free printables
frater: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "frater" (brother): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
This word is taught in chapter 2, lesson 2: frater, mox, dominus and 11 more words.