Etymology

friar

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Today it means: A member of a mendicant Christian order such as the Augustinians, Carmelites (white friars), Franciscans (grey friars) or the Dominicans (black friars). Full definition →

Middle English frere ← Old French frere ← Latin frāter
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰréh₂tēr
  2. Proto-Italic*frātēr
  3. Latinfrāter
  4. Old Frenchfrere
  5. Middle Englishfrere
  6. English todayfriar

Inherited from Middle English frere, borrowed from Old French frere, from Latin frāter, from Proto-Italic *frātēr, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr. Doublet of bhai, brother, bru, frater, pal, and vai.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.