fratiĉo

Esperanto

Etymology

From frato (“brother”, reconstrued as ‘sibling’) +‎ -iĉo (“male”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fraˈtit͡ʃo]
• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -it͡ʃo
• Hyphenation: fra‧ti‧ĉo

Noun

fratiĉo (accusative singular fratiĉon, plural fratiĉoj, accusative plural fratiĉojn)

1. (neologism, nonstandard, proscribed) brother

   Synonym: frato

   Coordinate term: fratino

   Mi amas mian fratiĉon. ― I love my brother.

Usage notes

The neologistic suffix -iĉo is controversial, but even among its proponents the word fratiĉo is commonly not recommended. The word frato traditionally already means “brother” even without the addition of the masculine suffix -iĉo, making the suffix redundant.

Many users of the term believe that the meaning of frato (and other gendered root words) should be made gender neutral, changing it to “sibling”. Other people that actively use it do not aim to change the traditional meaning of “frato”, but think the redundancy of -iĉo is preferable to the asymmetry between the forms frato (“brother”) and fratino (“sister”).

See also Gender reform in Esperanto and its section Masculine suffixes on Wikipedia, and the article on -iĉ- in Esperanto.