BROTHER (in Greek ἀδελφός, in Latin frater), a term of relation between two male children, sprung from the same father, or mother, or both. Scaliger and Vossius derive frater from φάρα, for φάρα, which properly signifies a person who draws water in the same well. The word, it is said, came originally from the city Argos, where there were only a few φάρα or wells distributed in certain quarters of the city, to which those of the same neighbourhood alone repaired.
By the civil law, brothers and sisters stand in the second degree of consanguinity; by the canon law, in the first degree. By the Mosaic law the brother of a man who died without issue was enjoined to marry the widow of the deceased. Deuter. xxv. 5. The ancients frequently applied the term brother indifferently to almost all who stood related in the collateral line, as uncles and nephews, cousins german, and the like. This we learn not only from a great many passages in the Old Testament, but also from profane authors. Cicero, in his Philippics, calls Antonia both wife and sister of Mark Antony, because she was daughter of his brother C. Antonius. And as to cousins, Tullus Hostilius, in Dionysius Halicarnassensis, calls the Horatii and Curiatii brothers, because they were sisters' children. The language of the Jews included in the name of brethren not only the strict relation of fraternity, but also the larger one of consanguinity. "We be brethren," said Abraham to Lot, (Gen. xiii. 8.) whereas Lot was only his nephew. So Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother (Gen. xxix. 12), whereas he was only his nephew. It is customary for kings to give to each other the title of brother. Nor is the custom modern. Menander mentions a letter of Chosroes king of Persia to the emperor Justinian, beginning thus: "Chosroes, king of kings, to the emperor Justinian my brother." In the civil law, brothers, fratres, in the plural, sometimes comprehend sisters; as Lucius et Titia, fratres; tres fratres, Titius, Marius, et Seia.
Foster-Brothers, are males nursed at the same breast; more strictly used of those suckled at the same time with the nurse's own child. The French call them frères du lait, or brothers by milk.