| 释义 |
brother-in-law|ˈbrʌðərɪnˌlɔː|
Also 5 brodyr yn lawe, broder in law, broder elawe.
[App. ‘in law’ = in Canon Law (in contrast to brother in blood or by nature), with reference to the degrees of affinity within which marriage is prohibited; a brother-in-law or sister-in-law being, as regards intermarriage, treated ‘in law’ as a brother or sister.]
prop. The brother of one's husband or wife; the husband of one's sister. Sometimes extended to the husband of one's wife's (or husband's) sister.
c1300K. Alis. 4399 He was Daries brother in lawe. [c1425Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 672 Hic leuir, est frater in lege.] 1483Cath. Angl. 45 A Broder in law [v.r. Broder elawe], leuir. 1522Bury Wills (1850) 117, I bequethe to John Bullok, my brother in law, a fetherbed. 1552Huloet, Brotherne by mariynge the doughters of one man, called brothern in lawe. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 80 That we at our owne charge, shall ransome straight His Brother-in-Law. 1700Tyrrell Hist. Eng. II. 901 On his Brother-in-Law's behalf. 1830Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. (1863) 273 Oakhampstead Park, the pleasant demesne of her brother-in-law, Sir Arthur Villars.
†b. humorously. The father of one's daughter-in-law or son-in-law. Obs.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 720 Who..is no honest man to goe about to make me the Kings Brother in Law.
Hence ˈbrother-in-ˌlawship.
1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1885) 98 The pleasures of brother-in-lawship in general. |