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.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 4399 He was Daries brother in lawe. [c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 672 Hic leuir, est frater in lege.] 1483 Cath. Angl. 45 A Broder in law [v.r. Broder elawe], leuir. 1522 Bury Wills (1850) 117, I bequethe to John Bullok, my brother in law, a fetherbed. 1552 Huloet, Brotherne by mariynge the doughters of one man, called brothern in lawe. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 80 That we at our owne charge, shall ransome straight His Brother-in-Law. 1700 Tyrrell Hist. Eng. II. 901 On his Brother-in-Law's behalf. 1830 Miss 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.
| 1611 Shakes. 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.
| 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1885) 98 The pleasures of brother-in-lawship in general. |