different between father vs sister

English

Etymology

From Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fad?r, from Proto-Indo-European *ph?t?r. Doublet of ayr, faeder, padre, pater, and père.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fä'th?(r), IPA^(key): /?f??ð?(?)/
• (General American) enPR: fä'th?r, IPA^(key): /?f?ð?/
• (General Australian) enPR: fä'th?, IPA^(key): /?fa?ð?/
• (obsolete) enPR: f?'th?r, IPA^(key): /?fæð??/
• Homophone: farther (in non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -??ð?(r)
• Hyphenation: fa?ther

Noun

father (plural fathers)

1. A (generally human) male who begets a child.
2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
3. A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

4. A term of respectful address for a priest.
5. A person who plays the role of a father in some way.
6. The founder of a discipline or science.

7. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
   • 1991, The Nairobi Law Monthly:

     Soon after the announcement of this year's election results, Mereka said that "the father of all battles had just begun." His dispute with Muite goes back to March last year […]

   • 2002, Financial Management:

     "If UK GDP slows by 1 per cent, there is the mother and father of all recessions. It was exciting, but very bizarre, working in such an environment."

   • 2012, Zubairu Wai, Epistemologies of African Conflicts: Violence, Evolutionism, and the War in Sierra Leone, Palgrave Macmillan: (?ISBN), page 93:

     “The Father of All Battles”

     On March 23, 1991, a band of armed insurgents attacked the town of Bomaru […]

8. Something inanimate that begets.

Synonyms

• (parent): see Thesaurus:father
• (most significant thing): see mother and granddaddy

Antonyms

• (with regards to gender) mother
• (with regards to ancestry) son, daughter, child

Hypernyms

• (a male parent): parent

Derived terms

Related terms

• Father
• Jupiter
• paternal

Translations

Verb

father (third-person singular simple present fathers, present participle fathering, simple past and past participle fathered)

1. To be a father to; to sire.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI v 4

     Well, go to; we'll have no bastards live; Especially since Charles must father it.

2. (figuratively) To give rise to.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline ii 2

     Cowards father cowards and base things sire base.

3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline iv 2

     Ay, good youth! And rather father thee than master thee.

4. To provide with a father.
5. To adopt as one's own.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII.

     Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ.

Translations

See also

• beget
• grandpa
• pater
• paternal
• sire

Anagrams

• afther, fareth, hafter, trefah

Middle English

Noun

father

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of fader

English

Etymology

From Middle English sister, suster, from Old English swustor, sweoster, sweostor (“sister, nun”); from Proto-Germanic *swest?r (“sister”), from Proto-Indo-European *swés?r (“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 ???????????????????????????? (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian ??????? (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit ????? (svás?, “sister”), Persian ?????? (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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?s.t?/
• (General American) enPR: s?s't?r, IPA^(key): /?s?s.t?/
• Rhymes: -?st?(r)
• 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

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

   Synonyms: nun, sistren

   Coordinate terms: brother, friar, frater

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 of a race, profession, religion or organization, such as feminism.
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.

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

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

8. A woman, in certain labour or socialist circles; also as a form of address.
9. (attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.

   Synonyms: affiliate, affiliated

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

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.

Derived terms

Related terms

• sororal
• sistren

Coordinate terms

• brother
• brethren

Descendants

• ? Gulf Arabic: ???????? (sist?r, “female nurse”)
• ? Japanese: ???? (shisut?)
• ? Korean: ??? (siseuteo)

Translations

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.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To be sister to; to resemble closely.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 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

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 *swest?r, from Proto-Indo-European *swés?r.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?s?st?r]

Noun

sister (plural sisteris)

1. sister

Derived terms

• guid-sister