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fraternity

 - 3 dictionary results

fra⋅ter⋅ni⋅ty

  [fruh-tur-ni-tee]
Use fraternity in a Sentence
–noun, plural -ties.
1. a local or national organization of male students, primarily for social purposes, usually with secret initiation and rites and a name composed of two or three Greek letters.
2. a group of persons associated by or as if by ties of brotherhood.
3. any group or class of persons having common purposes, interests, etc.: the medical fraternity.
4. an organization of laymen for religious or charitable purposes; sodality.
5. the quality of being brotherly; brotherhood: liberty, equality, and fraternity.
6. the relation of a brother or between brothers.
Origin:
1300–50; ME fraternite < L frāternitās. See fraternal, -ity
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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fra·ter·ni·ty   (frə-tûr'nĭ-tē)   
n.   pl. fra·ter·ni·ties

  1. A body of people associated for a common purpose or interest, such as a guild.

  2. A group of people joined by similar backgrounds, occupations, interests, or tastes: the fraternity of bird watchers.

  3. A chiefly social organization of men students at a college or university, usually designated by Greek letters.

  4. Roman Catholic Church A sodality.

  5. The quality or condition of being brothers; brotherliness.


[Middle English fraternite, from Old French, from Latin frāternitās, from frāternus, fraternal; see fraternal.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

fraternity 
c.1330, "body of men associated by common interest," from O.Fr. fraternité, from L. fraternitatem (nom. fraternitas), from fraternus "brotherly," from frater "brother," from PIE *bhrater (see brother). College Greek-letter organization sense is from 1777, first in reference to Phi Beta Kappa; shortened form frat first recorded 1895. Fraternize is attested from 1611, "to sympathize as brothers;" sense of "cultivate friendship with enemy troops" is from 1897; used oddly by World War II armed forces to mean "have sex with women from enemy countries." Fraternal is 1421, from M.L. fraternalis, from L. fraternus.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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