[Ads-l] "Half brother" in the 19-century U.S.

[Michael Eldridge]

Hello ADS Folk:

I'm not a linguist by training, so a linguist colleague has helped me frame
the following query.

I’m looking for attested nineteenth-century U.S. colloquial usage of "half
brother." Specifically: are there examples where “half brother” clearly
refers to what we’d now call a stepbrother (adopted sibling/no shared
biological parent), or is “half brother,” when specified, consistently
reserved for “one shared parent”? I’d love citations
(newspapers/letters/books), especially contrastive phrasings (half brother
vs step-brother) and any evidence of change across 1800–1900.

Kind regards,

Michael Eldridge
Professor Emeritus, English <https://www.humboldt.edu/english/> and
International
Studies
Founders Hall 168
Cal Poly Humboldt
Arcata CA 95521
707.826.5906 (ph) | 707.826.5939 (fx)
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