sister

See also: Sister

English

Etymology

PIE word
*swésōr

From Middle English sister, suster, from Old English swustor, sweoster, sweostor (“sister, nun”); from Proto-Germanic *swestēr (“sister”), from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr (“sister”).

Cognate with Scots sister, syster (“sister”), West Frisian sus, suster (“sister”), Dutch zuster (“sister”), German Schwester (“sister”), Norwegian Bokmål søster (“sister”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish syster (“sister”), Icelandic systir (“sister”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰𐍂 (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian сестра́ (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit स्वसृ (svásṛ, “sister”), Persian خواهر‎ (xâhar, “sister”).

In standard English, the form with i is due to contamination with Old Norse systir (“sister”).

The plural sistren is from Middle English sistren, a variant plural of sister, suster (“sister”); compare brethren.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪs.tə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: sĭs'tər, IPA^(key): /ˈsɪs.tɚ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪstə(ɹ)
• Homophone: cister
• Hyphenation: sis‧ter

Noun

sister (plural sisters or (archaic in most senses) sistren)

1. A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.

   Synonym: (slang) sis

   Antonym: brother

   Hypernym: sibling

   My sister is always driving me crazy.

2. A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal) a nun.

   Synonym: nun

   Coordinate terms: brother, friar, frater

   Michelle left behind her bank job and became a sister at the local convent.

3. Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
4. (Britain) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.

   Synonym: charge nurse

5. Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through common membership in a community, race, profession, religion, organization, or ism.

   Connie was very close to her friend Judy and considered her to be her sister.

   • 1985, “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves”, in Who’s Zoomin' Who?, performed by Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin:

     Sisters are doing it for themselves / Standing on their own two feet

6. (slang, sometimes capitalized) A black woman.
   • 2009, Rajen Persaud, Why Black Men Love White Women, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 171:

     The short “naps” of the average Sister do not sway in the wind as that of a blonde.

   • 2014, J. L. King, Full Circle: Loving. Living. Life. After The Down Low:

     And now, social media has made it worse. From Facebook to Twitter, I get all kinds of invitations. Recently a sister inboxed me on Facebook and told me that she knew for a fact that I wanted her and she wanted me.

7. (informal) A form of address to a woman.

   Synonyms: darling, dear, love, (US) lady, miss, (northern UK) pet

   • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 13:

     "Listen, sister. I've got a job for you."

   What’s up, sister?

8. A woman, in certain religious, labour or socialist circles; also as a form of address.

   Thank you, sister. I would like to thank the sister who just spoke.

9. (attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.

   Synonyms: affiliate, affiliated

   sister publication

   sister city

   sister projects

10. (computing theory) A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
11. (usually attributively) Something in the same class.

    sister ships

    sister facility

Usage notes

• In Roman Catholicism, a distinction is often drawn (especially by members of female religious orders) between nuns and sisters, the former being cloistered and devoted primarily to prayer, the latter being more active, doing work such as operating hospitals, caring for the poor, or teaching.
• The plural sistren is no longer commonly used for biological sisters in contemporary English (although it was in the past) but may be found in some religious, feminist, or poetic usage.

Coordinate terms

• brother
• brethren

Derived terms

• big sister
• cister
• half-sister
• kid sister
• little sister
• Seven Sisters
• sis
• sissy
• sister city
• sister from another mister
• sisterhood
• sister-in-law
• sisterly
• Sister Minor
• Sister Minoress
• sisters before misters
• sister ship
• stepsister
• weak sister

 

Related terms

• sororal
• sistren
• suster
• sustah

Descendants

• → Gulf Arabic: سِسْتَر‎ (sistar, “female nurse”)
• → Japanese: シスター (shisutā)
• → Korean: 시스터 (siseuteo)

Translations

See sister/translations § Noun.

Verb

sister (third-person singular simple present sisters, present participle sistering, simple past and past participle sistered)

1. (transitive, construction) To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.

   I’m trying to correct my sagging floor by sistering the joists.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To be sister to; to resemble closely.
   • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene 1]:

     Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes
     Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,
     That even her art sisters the natural roses;
     Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry

Translations

strengthen by fastening a second beam alongside

• German: aufdoppeln, verstärken (de)

to resemble closely

Further reading

• Sister (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sister in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Istres, Reists, reists, resist, resits, restis, risest

Middle English

Noun

sister

1. Alternative form of suster

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English sister, syster, forms of suster influenced by Old Norse systir, from Old English sweostor, swustor, sweoster, from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsɪstər]

Noun

sister (plural sisteris)

1. sister

Derived terms

• guid-sister