cousin
See also: Cousin
English
Etymology
From Middle English cosyn, from Old French cosin, from Latin cōnsōbrīnus (possibly via a Vulgar Latin form *cōsōbīnus > *cōsuīnus), from com- + sōbrīnus.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkʌzn̩/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkʌzɪn/, /ˈkʌz(ə)n/
- (US, weak vowel merger) IPA(key): [ˈkʰɐz.ɹ̩n]
Audio (US, California) (file) - Homophone: cozen (weak vowel merger)
- Rhymes: -ʌzən
- Hyphenation: cou‧sin
Noun
cousin (plural cousins)
- The child of a person's uncle or aunt; a first cousin.
- Synonym: first cousin
- I think my cousin is a good man.
- (archaic) A kinsman.
- Any relation who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of one's extended family; one more distantly related than an uncle, aunt, granduncle, grandaunt, nephew, niece, grandnephew, grandniece, etc.
- (obsolete) A title formerly given by a king to a nobleman, particularly to those of the council. In English writs, etc., issued by the crown, it signifies any earl.
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iv]:
- My noble lords and cousins, all, good morrow.
-
- (figurative) Something kindred or related to something else.
- 2003 Nov. 21, Tim Homfray, "What do they mean...," Times Educational Supplement (UK) (retrieved 20 Nov 2012):
- Partnering, along with its less irritating cousin "partnership", crops up all over the place, being equally useful to the lazy jargoneer and the lazy policy-maker. It has been said that there is no noun which cannot be verbed; in the same way, there is now nothing, concrete or abstract, which cannot be partnered.
- 2015 July 23, Tessa Berenson, “NASA Discovers New Earth-Like Planet”, in Time:
- NASA has discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting around a star, which a NASA researcher called a “bigger, older cousin to Earth.”
- 2003 Nov. 21, Tim Homfray, "What do they mean...," Times Educational Supplement (UK) (retrieved 20 Nov 2012):
- (espionage, slang, chiefly in the plural) A member of the British intelligence services (from an American perspective) or of the American intelligence services (from a British perspective).
Usage notes
- People who have common grandparents but different parents are first cousins. People who have common great-grandparents but no common grandparents and different parents are second cousins, and so on.
- In general, one's nth cousin is anyone other than oneself, one's siblings or nearer cousins found by going back n+1 generations and then forward n+1 generations. One of one's first cousin's parents is one's parents' siblings. One of one's second cousin's grandparents is one of one's grandparents' siblings.
- The child of one's first cousin or the first cousin of one's parent is one's first cousin once removed; the grandchild of one's first cousin or the first cousin of one's grandparent is one's first cousin twice removed, and so on. For example, if Phil and Marie are first cousins, and Marie has a son Andre, then Phil and Andre are first cousins once removed.
- In the southern US, the relation is considered the number of links between two people of common ancestry to the common aunt or uncle.
- A patrilineal or paternal cousin is a father's niece or nephew, and a matrilineal or maternal cousin a mother's. Paternal and maternal parallel cousins are father's brother's child and mother's sister's child, respectively; paternal and maternal cross cousins are father's sister's child and mother's brother's child, respectively.
Hyponyms
- The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates
{{syn|en|...}}or{{ant|en|...}}.
- cousin-aunt
- cousin brother
- cousin german
- cousin-german
- cousin-in-law
- cousin prime
- cousin sister
- cousin-uncle
- cross-cousin
- first cousin
- kissing cousin
- neve
- parallel cousin
- second cousin
- third cousin
Derived terms
terms derived from cousin (noun)
- cater-cousin
- country cousin
- cous
- cousinal
- cousin-aunt
- cousin-brother
- cousin brother
- cousiness
- cousin-german
- cousin humper
- cousin-in-law
- Cousin John
- cousin sister
- cousin-sister
- cousin-uncle
- cross cousin
- cuzzy
- double cousin
- double first cousin
- everybody and his cousin
- everybody and their cousin
- everyone and his cousin
- everyone and their cousin
- fifth cousin
- first cousin thrice removed
- first cousin twice removed
- fourth cousin
- full cousin
- half cousin
- half-cousin
- half-first cousin
- maternal cousin
- parallel cousin
- paternal cousin
- second cousin once removed
- ship's cousin
- single-first cousin
- sixth cousin
- step-cousin
Translations
nephew or niece of a parent
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
- once removed
- twice removed
Further reading
cousin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- scioun
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ku.zɛ̃/
audio (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle French cousin, from Old French cosin, from Latin cōnsōbrīnus (possibly via a Vulgar Latin form *cōsōbīnus > *cōsuīnus).
Noun
cousin m (plural cousins, feminine cousine)
- cousin (male)
- Mon cousin et son fils sont venus me voir.
- My cousin and his son came to see me.
Derived terms
- cousin germain
Descendants
- → Turkish: kuzen
Etymology 2
From Latin culicīnus (“mosquito-like”), from culex (“gnat, midge”).
Noun
cousin m (plural cousins)
- (regional, archaic) mosquito
- Synonym: moustique
Derived terms
- cousinière (“mosquito net”)
Further reading
- “cousin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French cosin.
Noun
cousin m (plural cousins, feminine singular cousine, feminine plural cousines)
- male cousin
Descendants
- French: cousin
Norman
Alternative forms
- couôsîn (Standard Jèrriais)
- couôthîn (Saint Ouen)
Etymology
From Old French cosin, from Latin cōnsōbrīnus.
Noun
cousin m (plural cousins, feminine cousaine)
- (Guernsey) (male) cousin