In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
SISTER
sister
(noun) a female person who is a fellow member of a sorority or labor union or other group; “none of her sisters would betray her”
Sister
(noun) (Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a nun (and used as a form of address); “the Sisters taught her to love God”
sister, sis
(noun) a female person who has the same parents as another person; “my sister married a musician”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
sister (plural sisters or sistren)
A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.
Synonym: sis (slang)
Antonym: brother
Hypernym: sibling
A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informally) a nun.
Synonyms: nun, sistren
Coordinate terms: brother, friar, frater
Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
(British) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.
Synonym: charge nurse
Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through common membership of a race, profession, religion or organization, such as feminism.
(slang, sometimes, capitalized) A black woman.
(informal) A form of address to a woman.
Synonyms: darling, dear, love, lady (US), miss, pet (northern UK)
A woman, in certain labour or socialist circles; also as a form of address.
• Thank you, sister. I would like to thank the sister who just spoke.
(attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.
Synonyms: affiliate, affiliated
(comptheory) A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
(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.
Coordinate terms
• brother
• brethren
Verb
sister (third-person singular simple present sisters, present participle sistering, simple past and past participle sistered)
(transitive, construction) To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.
(obsolete, transitive) To be sister to; to resemble closely.
Anagrams
• Istres, Reists, reists, resist, resits, restis, risest
Noun
Sister (plural Sisters)
Title of respect for an adult female member of a religious order.
Title of respect for am adult female member of a fraternal/sororal organization, or comrade in a movement, or even a stranger using fictive kin.
A title used to personify or respectfully refer to concepts or animals.
Synonyms
• Ss.
• Sis.
Coordinate terms
• brother
• brethren
• Brother
• Brethren
• brotherhood
• Brotherhood
• Mother
• Father
Anagrams
• Istres, Reists, reists, resist, resits, restis, risest
Source: Wiktionary
Sis"ter, n. Etym: [OE. sister, fr. Icel. systir; also suster, from AS. sweostor, sweoster, swuster, akin to OFries. sweester, suster, LG. süster, suster, D. zuster, OS. & OHG. swestar, G. schwester, Icel. systir, Sw. syster, Dan. söster, Goth. swistar, Lith. ses, Russ. sestra, Pol. siostra, L. soror, Skr. svasr. sq. root298. Cf. Cousin.]
1. A female who has the same parents with another person, or who has one of them only. In the latter case, she is more definitely called a half sister. The correlative of brother. I am the sister of one Claudio. Shak.
2. A woman who is closely allied to, or assocciated with, another person, as in the sdame faith, society, order, or community. James ii. 15.
3. One of the same kind, or of the same condition; -- generally used adjectively; as, sister fruits. Pope. Sister Block (Naut.), a tackle block having two sheaves, one above the other.
– Sister hooks, a pair of hooks fitted together, the shank of one forming a mousing for the other; -- called also match hook.
– Sister of charity, Sister of mercy. (R. C. Ch.) See under Charity, and Mercy.
Sis"ter, v. t.
Definition: To be sister to; to resemble closely. [Obs.] Shak.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
30 April 2024
NURSE
(verb) treat carefully; “He nursed his injured back by lying in bed several hours every afternoon”; “He nursed the flowers in his garden and fertilized them regularly”
Coffee Trivia
