Brer

Southern kinship term

Brer is a dialectal spelling of brother, used as a title before a name.

It appears almost exclusively in the Uncle Remus stories, where animals address each other this way: Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear.

The spelling represents African American vernacular pronunciation from the 19th-century American South.

folklore

Fox

Prominent media surname

BearName evoking a large mammal
Tar-BabySelf-worsening entanglement
tricksterCunning deceiver in myth

Uncle Remus · folktale · fable · plantation · storytelling · Harris · antebellum · dialect · African-American · cunning

kinship

sibling

Brother or sister

kinBlood-connected people
fellowMan or companion
comradeFellow member, shared cause

familiar · dialectal · colloquial · honorific · address · community · solidarity · kinfolk

Opposites

gender/familial title

Feminine nickname or pet form

orthographic register

Certain Anabaptist denominations

social distance

BrerSir

Formal male honorific

Phrases

Brer RabbitAfrican-American folklore's clever hare
Swiss BrethrenEarly Anabaptist movement
blood brethrenThose united by oath
Brer FoxFolktale antagonist animal

Family

Familiarity: Top 1,000,000
Profile: Mostly American · Timeless · Everyday, not technical · Rated G