برادر

برادر means “brother.” It comes from the same 5,000-year-old root as English “brother,” Latin “frater,” and Sanskrit “bhrātṛ.”

What it actually means

برادر means “brother” in Persian, used for biological brothers and as an extended honorific for close male friends, religious brethren, or any address among men of the same generation. The word is one of Persian’s deepest Indo-European inheritances, traceable to Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr, the same root behind English “brother,” Latin “frāter” (giving “fraternal,” “fraternity”), Greek “phrātēr,” Sanskrit “bhrātṛ,” German “Bruder.” The cognate chain is one of the most universal kinship terms ever reconstructed. Modern Persian uses برادر as the formal word and داداش (dādāsh, “bro”) as the everyday casual form. داداش is also used between male friends regardless of biological relation, the way English uses “bro.”

How to say it

Both forms are in active use. برادر is what an Iranian writes in formal contexts and uses in respectful conversation. داداش is the affectionate everyday word. The diminutive داداشی (dādāshī) functions as a soft “little brother” or “buddy.” There is also برادرجان (barādar-jān), a respectful affectionate form using the suffix جان (life/dear) the same way English would say “dear brother.”

In a sentence

Cultural note

برادر traces to Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr, one of the most stable kinship terms across the language family. Sanskrit “bhrātṛ” and Persian “barādar” sit at the same point in the family tree as Greek “phrātēr,” Latin “frāter,” English “brother,” and German “Bruder.” The cognate chain is so universal that historical linguists treat it as a baseline for measuring how words travel. In Iranian culture, برادر carries strong fraternal weight beyond biological family. The phrase برادر دینی (barādar-e dīnī, “religious brother”) refers to fellow Muslims. The phrase برادرخوانده (barādar-khānde, “named brother”) refers to a non-biological brother bond formalized through ritual. Modern Iran has loosened some of these traditional structures, but the word still carries warmth that English “brother” only sometimes does. Calling a stranger “برادر” or “داداش” in casual interaction is a small act of friendliness Iranians use freely.

Related

You will see this word together with مادر (mother) and پدر (father), the two other Indo-European inheritance kinship words in Persian. For the deep history of Persian’s family vocabulary, see 2,500 years of Persian.