blood brother

English

Noun

blood brother (plural blood brothers or (obsolete) blood brethren)

1. An unrelated male considered to share a brother-like relationship established by a ceremonial sharing of blood in some cultures.
   • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 241:

     "He is a blood brother and an oath brother of Odin, highest of the gods."

2. (by extension) An unrelated male considered to share such a strong relationship generally.
3. A brother by blood: a brother-german or half-brother, as distinguished from step-brothers.

Derived terms

• blood brotherhood

Translations

unrelated male friend confirmed by a ceremonial mingling of blood

• Belarusian: пабраці́м m (pabracím)
• Bulgarian: побратим (bg) m (pobratim)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 盟兄弟 (mang⁴ hing¹ dai⁶)

  Mandarin: 把兄弟 (zh) (bǎxiōngdì), 盟兄弟 (zh) (méngxiōngdì)

• Dutch: bloedbroeder (nl) m
• Finnish: veriveli
• French: frère de sang (fr) m
• German: Blutsbruder (de) m
• Greek: αδελφοποιτός (el) m (adelfopoitós)
• Japanese: 義兄弟 (ja) (ぎきょうだい, gikyōdai, ぎけいてい, gikeitei)
• Macedonian: по́братим m (póbratim)
• Portuguese: irmão de sangue m
• Romanian: fârtat (ro) m, frate de sânge (ro) m
• Russian: побрати́м (ru) m (pobratím), на́званый брат m (názvanyj brat)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: побратим m

  Roman: pobratim (sh) m

• Turkish: kan kardeşi (tr)
• Ukrainian: побрати́м (uk) m (pobratým)

unrelated male friend considered to share such strong relationship

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 把兄弟 (zh) (bǎxiōngdì), 盟兄弟 (zh) (méngxiōngdì)

• Finnish: veriveli
• Portuguese: irmão de sangue m, irmão (pt) m
• Turkish: kan kardeşi (tr), kanka (tr)

full brother or half-brother — see also brother-german,‎ half brother

• Finnish: täysveli (full brother), velipuoli (fi) (half brother)
• Latin: germanus (la)
• Portuguese: irmão bilateral (pt) m (full brother), irmão germano m (full brother), meio-irmão (pt) m (half brother)