brotherkin

English

Etymology

From brother +‎ -kin.

Noun

brotherkin (plural brotherkins)

1. (rare) Diminutive of brother.

   Coordinate term: sisterkin

   • 1827, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, translated by [Thomas Carlyle], “The Golden Pot”, in German Romance: Specimens of Its Chief Authors; […], volume II (Containing Tieck and Hoffmann), Edinburgh: William Tait, […]; London: Charles Tait, […], Ninth Vigil, page 285:

     “He is right,” interrupted Registrator Heerbrand: “that fellow, that Archivarius, is a cursed Salamander, and strikes you fiery snips from his fingers, which burn holes in your surtout like red-hot tinder. Ay, ay, you are in the right, brotherkin Anselmus; and whoever says No, is saying No to me!”

     [original: «Er hat Recht,» fiel der Regiſtrator Heerbrand ein, «der Kerl, der Archivarius, iſt ein verfluchter Salamander, der mit den Fingern feurige Schnippchen ſchlägt, die einem Löcher in den Ueberrock brennen wie glühender Schwamm. — Ja, ja, Du haſt Recht, Brüderchen Anſelmus, und wer es nicht glaubt, iſt mein Feind!»]

   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Organic Filaments”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book third, page 169:

     Wert thou, my little Brotherkin, suddenly covered-up within the largest imaginable Glass-bell,—what a thing it were, not for thyself only, but for the world! Post Letters, more or fewer, from all the four winds, impinge against thy Glass walls, but have to drop unread: neither from within comes there question or response into any Postbag; […]

   • 1856, Henry Morley, “Relates a Great Dispute with the Dominicans of Metz: Tells Also How Agrippa Saved a Village Girl Accused of Witchcraft from the Clutches of the Chief Inquisitor, and Lost His Office of Town Advocate and Orator”, in Cornelius Agrippa. The Life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Doctor and Knight, Commonly Known as a Magician. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], pages 50, 58, 59, and 64:

     The same brotherkin, with Arnold de Tungris and other sworn calumniators of Cologne, insulted the most upright and learned man, Reuchlin of Pfortzheim, and spread the most wicked lies about the world to their own everlasting infamy. So did Wigandus, the beginning and the support of the Dominican heresy at Berne; so did that Dominican brotherkin and Thomist doctor against the illustrious doctor in each faculty, Sebastian Brand, now chancellor and councillor at Zurich, as well as against other famous doctors, being and speaking evil. So did Sylvester Prierias, though master of the palace to the Pope at Rome, brotherkin of the same order of Dominicans and Thomist doctor, inveigh against that most combative doctor, Martin Luther of Wittenberg, not without giving proof of his own ignorance. […] He had appeared in the court as advocate of the accused on that occasion when the cause was postponed for two days, had been reviled, he says, by “that brotherkin (I err), that great, swollen, and fat brother, Nicolas Savin, of the Dominican Convent, Inquisitor¹,” and threatened with a process against himself also, as favourer of heretics; […] Let this brotherkin, priest, or Levite, turn his heart from her. […] Farewell, and either avoid or banish this blaspheming brotherkin.

   • 1905, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, translated by Rosa Newmarch, The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky […], London: John Lane The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1906, page 201:

     Just before the holidays, my dear brotherkin, I made the acquaintance of Count Tolstoi. This pleased me very much. I have also received a kind and precious letter from his Grace. When he heard the ‘Andante’ from my first quartet he shed tears of emotion. I am very proud of this, my dear brotherkin, and you really should not forget me, my dear brotherkin, because I have now become a great swell. Farewell, my brotherkin.

     [original: А перед праздниками, братец, очень я близко сошёлся с писателем Графом Толстым, и очень они мне понравились, и имею я теперь от них очень милое и дорогое для меня письмо. И слушали они, братец мой, первый квартет и во время анданте ажно слезы проливали. И очень я, братец мой, этим горжусь, и ты, братец мой, не забывайся, потому я ведь, братец ты мой, птица довольно важная. Ну прощай, братец ты мой.]

     A pered prazdnikami, bratec, očenʹ ja blizko sošólsja s pisatelem Grafom Tolstym, i očenʹ oni mne ponravilisʹ, i imeju ja teperʹ ot nix očenʹ miloje i dorogoje dlja menja pisʹmo. I slušali oni, bratec moj, pervyj kvartet i vo vremja andante ažno slezy prolivali. I očenʹ ja, bratec moj, etim goržusʹ, i ty, bratec moj, ne zabyvajsja, potomu ja vedʹ, bratec ty moj, ptica dovolʹno važnaja. Nu proščaj, bratec ty moj.

   • 1917 August 4, “Books and Authors”, in America: A Catholic Review of the Week, volume XVII, number 17 (whole 434), New York, N.Y.: The America Press, page 430, column 1:

     There is nothing better in the book than his account of the “Two Poor Little Nestlings of Belgium,” a tiny orphan boy of five who “protected” his three-year-old brotherkin during their flight, and who said “in a very small, beseeching voice already half asleep” to the kind French lady bending down to him: “Madame, is anyone going to put us to bed?”

   • 2007, Jay C. Treat, transl., “Song of Songs”, in Albert Pietersma, Benjamin G. Wright, editors, A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under That Title, New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 660 and 662:

     Greek Song translates the term with ἀδελφιδός (adelphidós) (“little brother”).¹⁸ I have found no evidence that ἀδελφιδός was used outside Greek Song (and later commentary on it); it appears that our OG translator coined this diminutive form of ἀδελφός (adelphós) (“brother”). Its use in 5.9 and in 8.1, where it translates אח (“brother”), shows that Greek Song is using this diminutive as a term of endearment. Its use may suggest that the translator was a woman. Because ἀδελφιδός must have sounded unusual in Greek ears, the NETS translation consistently renders it with a formal equivalent that sounds unusual in English: “brotherkin.” […]
     My brotherkin is to me a bag of myrrh; he shall spend the night between my breasts. My brotherkin is to me a cluster of henna in vineyards of En-gaddi. […] Look, you are beautiful, my brotherkin, and indeed lovely. […] As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my brotherkin among the sons. […] My brotherkin’s voice! Look, he has come, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My brotherkin is like the gazelle or a fawn of stags on the mountains of Baithel.

     [original: ἀπόδεσμος τῆς στακτῆς ἀδελφιδός μου ἐμοί ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν μαστῶν μου αὐλισθήσεται / βότρυς τῆς κύπρου ἀδελφιδός μου ἐμοὶ ἐν ἀμπελῶσιν Εγγαδδι […] ἰδοὺ εἶ καλός ὁ ἀδελφιδός μου καί γε ὡραῖος πρὸς κλίνη ἡμῶν σύσκιος […] ὡς μῆλον ἐν τοῖς ξύλοις τοῦ δρυμοῦ οὕτως ἀδελφιδός μου ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν υἱῶν […] φωνὴ ἀδελφιδοῦ μου ἰδοὺ οὗτος ἥκει πηδῶν ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη διαλλόμενος ἐπὶ τοὺς βουνούς / ὅμοιός ἐστιν ἀδελφιδός μου τῇ δορκάδι ἢ νεβρῷ ἐλάφων ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη Βαιθηλ]

     apódesmos tês staktês adelphidós mou emoí anà méson tôn mastôn mou aulisthḗsetai / bótrus tês kúprou adelphidós mou emoì en ampelôsin Engaddi […] idoù eî kalós ho adelphidós mou kaí ge hōraîos pròs klínē hēmôn súskios […] hōs mêlon en toîs xúlois toû drumoû hoútōs adelphidós mou anà méson tôn huiôn […] phōnḕ adelphidoû mou idoù hoûtos hḗkei pēdôn epì tà órē diallómenos epì toùs bounoús / hómoiós estin adelphidós mou têi dorkádi ḕ nebrôi eláphōn epì tà órē Baithēl

   • 2011, Troy Howell, The Dragon of Cripple Creek, New York, N.Y.: Amulet Books, →ISBN, page 302:

     We’re gonna get your brotherkin off, but he’s gonna need my help.