FRATER

frater, frater house or fratery, a term in architecture for the hall where the members of a monastery or friary met for meals or refreshment. the word is by origin the same as "refectory." the older forms, such as _freitur_, _fraytor_ and the like, show the word to be an adaptation of the o. fr. _fraitour_, a shortened form of _refraitour_, from the med. lat. _rejectorium_. the word has been confused with _frater_, a brother or friar, and hence sometimes confined in meaning to the dining-hall of a friary, while "refectory" is used of a monastery.