In the
lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's
sibling
A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child.
While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...
or
sibling-in-law. The
converse relation
In mathematics, the converse relation, or transpose, of a binary relation is the relation that occurs when the order of the elements is switched in the relation. For example, the converse of the relation 'child of' is the relation 'parent&n ...
ship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an
aunt
An aunt is a woman who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. Known alternate terms include auntie or aunty. Children in other cultures and families may refe ...
or
uncle. A niece is female and a nephew is male. The term nibling has been used in place of the common, gender-specific terms in some specialist literature.
As aunt/uncle and niece/nephew are separated by one generation, they are an example of a
second-degree relationship. They are 25%
related
''Related'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on The WB from October 5, 2005, to March 20, 2006. It revolves around the lives of four close-knit sisters of Italian descent, raised in Brooklyn and living in Manhattan.
The ...
by blood.
Lexicology
The word nephew is derived from the
French word ''neveu'' which is derived from the
Latin ''nepos''. The term ''nepotism'', meaning familial loyalty, is derived from this Latin term. ''Niece'' entered
Middle English from the
Old French word ''nece'', which also derives from Latin ''nepotem''. The word ''nibling'' is a
neologism suggested by
Samuel Martin in 1951 as a cover term for "nephew or niece"; it is not common outside of specialist literature.
Sometimes in discussions involving analytic material or in abstract literature, terms such as ''male nibling'' and ''female nibling'' are preferred to describe nephews and nieces respectively. Terms such as ''nibling'' are also sometimes viewed as a gender-neutral alternative to terms which may be viewed as perpetuating the overgenderization of the English language.
These French-derived terms displaced the
Middle English ''nyfte, nift, nifte'', from
Old English ''nift'', from
Proto-Germanic *''niftiz'' (“niece”); and the
Middle English ''neve, neave'', from
Old English ''nefa'', from
Proto-Germanic *''nefô'' (“nephew”).
Culture
Traditionally, a nephew was the logical recipient of his uncle's
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
if the latter did not have a successor. A nephew might have more rights of inheritance than the uncle's daughter.
In social environments that lacked a stable home or environments such as refugee situations, uncles and fathers would equally be assigned responsibility for their sons and nephews.
Among parents, some cultures have assigned equal status in their social status to daughters and nieces. This is, for instance, the case in Indian communities in
Mauritius, and the Thai
Nakhon Phanom Province, where the transfer of cultural knowledge such as weaving was distributed equally among daughters, nieces and nieces-in-law by the Tai So community, and some
Garifuna people
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian Cr ...
that would transmit languages to their nieces. In some proselytizing communities the term ''niece'' was informally extended to include non-related younger female community members as a form of endearment. Among some tribes in Manus Province of Papua New Guinea, women's roles as sisters, daughters and nieces may have taken precedence over their marital status in social importance.
Additional terms
* A grandnephew or grandniece is the grandson or granddaughter of one's sibling. Also called great-nephew / great-niece.
* A half-niece or half-nephew is the child of one's half-sibling,
related
''Related'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on The WB from October 5, 2005, to March 20, 2006. It revolves around the lives of four close-knit sisters of Italian descent, raised in Brooklyn and living in Manhattan.
The ...
by 12.5%.
In some cultures and family traditions, it is common to refer to
cousins
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
with one or more removals to a newer generation using some form of the word niece or nephew. For more information see
cousin
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
.
References
External links
*
*
Dictionary.com, "nephew,"in Dictionary.com Unabridged. Source location: Random House, Inc. Available
Dictionary.com Is The World’s Favorite Online Dictionary Retrieved: January 1, 2011
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Family
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