Nephew and niece

"Nephew" redirects here. For other uses, see Nephew (disambiguation).

A nephew is a son of one's sibling or half-sibling, and a niece is a daughter of one's sibling or half-sibling. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation.

History

The word nephew is derived from the French word neveu. Historically, a nephew was the logical recipient of his uncle's inheritance if there was no son or daughter. The term 'nepotism', meaning familial loyalty, comes from the Latin term for a nephew.

Variations

Culture

In some cultures and family traditions, it's common to refer to one's first cousin once removed (the child of one's cousin), as a niece or nephew. In archaic terminology, a maternal nephew is called a sister-son, emphasizing the importance as a person's nearest male relative should he have no brothers or sons of his own. The term is used to describe some knights who are nephews to King Arthur and is imitated by J. R. R. Tolkien, especially in lists of Kings of Rohan or dwarves where the sister-son is also heir. Sister-daughter is a less common parallel term for niece.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Conklin, Harold C., "Ethnogenealogical Method", in Explorations in Cultural Anthropology: Essays in Honor of George Peter Murdock, W. H. Goodenough, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964

External links

Look up nephew in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Look up niece in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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