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. FRATERNITIES, COLLEGE, a class of student societies peculiar to the colleges and universities of the United States and Canada, with certain common characteristics, and mostly named from two or three letters of the Greek alphabet; hence they are frequently called "Greek Letter Societies." They are organized on the lodge system, and each fraternity comprises a number of affiliated lodges of which only one of any one fraternity is connected with the same institution. The lodges, called "chapters," in memory of the convocations of monks of medieval times, are usually designated by Greek letters also. They are nominally secret, with one exception (_Delta Upsilon_). Each chapter admits members from the lowest or freshman class, and of course loses its members as the students depart from college, consequently each chapter has in it at the same time members of all the four college classes and frequently those pursuing postgraduate studies. Where the attendance at a college is large the material from which fraternity members may be drawn is correspondingly abundant, and in some of the large colleges (e.g. at Cornell University and the University of Michigan) there are chapters of over twenty fraternities. All the fraternities aim to be select and to pick their members from the mass of incoming students. Where, however, the material to select from is not abundant and the rival fraternities are numerous, care in selection is impossible, and the chapters at any one college are apt to secure much the same general type of men. Many of the fraternities have, however, on account of a persistent selection of men of about the same tastes at different colleges, acquired a distinct character and individuality; for instance, _Alpha Delta Phi_ is literary.