etymology - Where do the words for daughter, son, aunt, uncle, mother, father, cousin, nephew, niece come from?


Please see Title. I'm not specifically referring to which language they came from... but if they come from something else. In other words, do they come from words with other meanings.


For example, do words for children come from a word that means "being that comes from one's loins" or something.



Answer



I extracted the following from the online Webster Dictionary. It's interesting to see how all these words were transformed from Latin/Greek/Old High German/Middle English to the current English words.


Note: I know that this does not exactly answer your question, since you actually want to know if the words derived from words with other meanings. But I think that having the full list of originating languages here may be useful as other answers to your question may refer to it.




DAUGHTER


Middle English, doughter, from Old English dohtor; akin to Old High German tohter daughter, Greek thygatēr


First Known Use: before 12th century




SON


Middle English sone, from Old English sunu; akin to Old High German sun son, Greek hyios


First Known Use: before 12th century




AUNT


Middle English, from Old French ante, from Latin amita; akin to Old High German amma mother, nurse, Greek amma nurse


First Known Use: 14th century




UNCLE


Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin avunculus mother's brother; akin to Old English ēam uncle, Welsh ewythr, Latin avus grandfather


First Known Use: 14th century




MOTHER


Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor; akin to Old High German muoter mother, Latin mater, Greek mētēr, Sanskrit mātṛ


First Known Use: before 12th century




FATHER


Middle English fader, from Old English fæder; akin to Old High German fater father, Latin pater, Greek patēr


First Known Use: before 12th century




COUSIN


Middle English cosin, from Anglo-French cusin, cosin, from Latin consobrinus, from com- + sobrinus second cousin, from soror sister — more at sister


First Known Use: 13th century




NEPHEW


Middle English nevew, from Anglo-French nevou, neveu, from Latin nepot-, nepos grandson, nephew; akin to Old English nefa grandson, nephew, Sanskrit napāt grandson


First Known Use: 14th century




NIECE


Middle English nece granddaughter, niece, from Anglo-French nece, niece, from Late Latin neptia, from Latin neptis; akin to Latin nepot-, nepos grandson, nephew


First Known Use: 14th century




Reference:


http://www.merriam-webster.com


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