Niece and nephew

{{Redirect|Niece|a more distant relation|second niece|the stock car team|Niece Motorsports}}

In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of an individual's sibling or sibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblings aunt or uncle. The gender-neutral term nibling has been used in place of the common terms, especially in specialist literature.{{cite book|last=Conklin|first=Harold C.|editor=Ward Hunt Goodenough|title=Explorations in Cultural Anthropology: Essays in Honor of George Peter Murdock|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/explorationsincu00good|chapter-url-access=registration|year=1964|publisher=McGraw-Hill|page=[https://archive.org/details/explorationsincu00good/page/35 35]|chapter=Ethnogenealogical method}}

As aunt/uncle and niece/nephew are separated by one generation, they are an example of a second-degree relationship. Unless related by marriage, they are 25% or more related by blood if the aunt/uncle is a full sibling of one of the parents, or 12.5% if they are a half-sibling.

Lexicology

The word nephew is derived from the French word {{lang|fr|neveu}} which is derived from the Latin {{lang|la|nepos}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nephew |title=nephew (n.) |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=Douglas Harper |access-date=8 June 2016 }} The term nepotism, meaning familial loyalty, is derived from this Latin term.{{cite book |title=Loss and Renewal: Australian Languages Since Colonisation |last1=Meakins |first1=Felicity |date=2016 |page=91 |author-link=Felicity Meakins }} Niece entered Middle English from the Old French word {{lang|fro|nece}}, which also derives from Latin {{lang|la|nepotem}}.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=niece, n. |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |date=June 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/126872?redirectedFrom=niece |access-date=June 26, 2016 }} The word nibling, derived from sibling, 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.{{cite journal |last=Keen |first=Ian |title=Definitions of kin |journal=Journal of Anthropological Research |volume=41 |issue=1 |year=1985 |pages=62–90 |doi=10.1086/jar.41.1.3630271 }} 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;{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Jane H. |author2=Kenneth C. Hill |title=Culture Influencing Language: Plurals of Hopi Kin Terms in Comparative Uto-Aztecan Perspective |journal=Journal of Linguistic Anthropology |volume=7 |issue=2 |year=1997 |pages=166–180 |doi=10.1525/jlin.1997.7.2.166 }} it can also be used likewise to refer to non-binary relatives.{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/jennifer-lopez-shares-video-about-transgender-nibling-brendon-n1237838 |title=Jennifer Lopez shares video about transgender 'nibling,' Brendon |first=Gwen |last=Aviles |work=NBC News |date=August 24, 2020 |access-date=May 25, 2024 }}

These French-derived terms displaced the Middle English {{lang|enm|nyfte}}, {{lang|enm|nift}}, {{lang|enm|nifte}}, from Old English {{Lang|ang|nift}}, from Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*niftiz}} ('niece'); and the Middle English {{lang|enm|neve}}, {{lang|enm|neave}}, from Old English {{lang|ang|nefa}}, from Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|*nefô}} ('nephew').{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvhJCgAAQBAJ&q=nyfte,+nephew&pg=PT57 |title=A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages |first=Carl Darling |last=Buck |date=3 July 2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226228860 |via=Google Books }}{{cite Q |Q131605459 |first=Don |last=Ringe |author-link=Donald Ringe |page=96 |mode=cs1}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DcdbAAAAMAAJ&q=proto+germanic+nefo |title=German kinship terms, 750–1500: documentation and analysis |first=William Jervis |last=Jones |date=19 March 1990 |publisher=W. de Gruyter |isbn=9780899255736 |via=Google Books }}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&q=proto+germanic+nefo&pg=PA239 |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture |first1=J. P. |last1=Mallory |first2=Douglas Q. |last2=Adams |date=19 March 1997 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781884964985 |via=Google Books }}

Culture

Traditionally, a nephew was the logical recipient of his uncle's inheritance if the latter did not have a successor. A nephew might have more rights of inheritance than the uncle's daughter.{{cite book|last1=Stahl|first1=Anne|title=Victims who Do Not Cooperate with Law Enforcement in Domestic Violence Incidents|date=2007|page=19}}{{cite web|url=http://calternatives.org/resource/pdf/Marginality,%20Modes%20of%20insecurity%20and%20Indigenous%20Women%20of%20Northern%20Bangladesh.pdf|title=Marginality, Modes of insecurity and Indigenous Women of Northern Bangladesh|last=Chakraborty|first=Eshani|website=calternatives.org|access-date=8 June 2016}}

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.{{cite journal|title=The Politics of Culture in Humanitarian Aid to Women Refugees Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence|journal=Transcultural Psychiatry|volume=37|issue=3|pages=435–449|publisher=McGill University|doi=10.1177/136346150003700309|year=2000|last1=Atlani|first1=Laàtitia|last2=Rousseau|first2=C…Cile|s2cid=146534532}}

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,{{cite journal|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4403988&fileId=S0010417500004023|title=Comparative Studies in Society and History — The Religion and Culture of Indian Immigrants in Mauritius and the Effect of Social Change — Cambridge Journals Online|issue=2|pages=241–257|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=8|access-date=2016-04-11|doi=10.1017/S0010417500004023|last1=Hazareesingh|first1=K.|date=January 1966|s2cid=144617688 }} 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,{{cite web|url=http://www.npu.ac.th/researchnpu/pdf/5/4.pdf|title=Knowledge Management on Local Wisdom of Tai-so Community Weaving Culture in Phone Sawan District, Nakhon Phanom Province|website=Npu.ac.th|access-date=2016-04-11}}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and some Garifuna people that would transmit languages to their nieces.{{cite web|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3707526|title=Language transmission in a Garifuna community: Challenging current notions about language death|website=Dialnet.unirioja.es|access-date=2016-04-11}} In some proselytizing communities the term niece was informally extended to include non-related younger female community members as a form of endearment.{{cite web|url=http://www.oapen.org/download?type=document&docid=515932#page=25|title=Divine Domesticities : Christian Paradoxes in Asia and the Pacific|website=Oapen.org|access-date=2016-04-11}} 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.{{cite book|last1=Gustaffson|first1=Berit|title=Traditions and Modernities in Gender Roles: Transformations in Kinship and Marriage Among the M'Buke from Manus Province|date=1999|page=7}}

Additional terms

A grandnephew or grandniece is the grandson or granddaughter of one's sibling.{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grandnephew|title=Definition of Grandnephew by Merriam-Webster|website=merriam-webster.com|publisher=Merriam-Webster|access-date=16 October 2020}} Also called great-nephew / great-niece.{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/great-nephew|title=Definition of Great-nephew by Merriam-Webster|website=merriam-webster.com|publisher=Merriam-Webster|access-date=16 October 2020}}
A half-niece or half-nephew is the child of one's half-sibling, related by 12.5%.{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/half%20niece |title=Definition Of Half Niece by Merriam-Webster|website=merriam-webster.com |publisher=Merriam-webster |access-date=March 30, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/half%20nephew |title=Definition Of Half Nephew by Merriam-Webster|website=merriam-webster.com|publisher=Merriam-webster |access-date=March 30, 2022}}

In some cultures and family traditions, it is common to refer to cousins with one or more removals to a newer generation using some form of the word niece or nephew. For more information see cousin.

References

External links

{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Nephew|volume=19|page=384}}
{{cite web|url=http://www.genetic-genealogy.co.uk/Toc115570138.html#Uncle_Aunt__Nephew_Niece|work=Genetic and Quantitative Aspects of Genealogy|title=Types of Collateral Relationships - Uncle/Aunt Nephew/Niece|first=F. M.|last=Lancaster|date=October 2005|access-date=25 June 2016}}
[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nephew Dictionary.com, "nephew,"] in Dictionary.com Unabridged. Source location: Random House, Inc. Available: [http://dictionary.reference.com Dictionary.com Is The World's Favorite Online Dictionary]. Retrieved: January 1, 2011

Category:Family

Category:Sibling