Frat
/fræt/noun
A college fraternity, or a member of one; also informal for fraternity life.
Did you know?Frat is a clipped form of fraternity, and fraternity ultimately comes from Latin frater, meaning “brother,” the same ancient root behind a huge family of kinship words across Indo-European languages.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bʰréh₂tēr
“brother”
Latin
Latin
frāter
“brother”
Old French
Old French
fraternité
“brotherhood; fellowship”
Late Middle English
English
fraternite
“brotherhood; a body of brothers”
19th Century
English
fraternity
“a college social society or brotherhood”
20th Century
English
frat
“informal shortening of fraternity; a fraternity or fraternity culture”
Explore more surprising origins