double cousin
Sep. 18th, 2009 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordForgotten English Friday!
double cousin - "Whe two brothers marry two sisters, the children are known as double cousins. Such relationships are very common in the Ozarks, and are considered somehow significant. In referring to each other these people seldom say simply, "He's my cousin," but rather, "We're double cousins." The word cousin may indicate a very distant relationship, but own cousin always means first cousin. —Vance Randolph's and George Wilson's Down in the Holler, 1953"
The term is known to Wikipedia as "double first cousin," which while more precise I'm sure we all agree is too prosaic to use. The Dictionary of American Regional English confirms FE's citation and adds other sources that confirm double cousins can result from siblings marrying siblings, not only brothers marrying sisters.
---L.
double cousin - "Whe two brothers marry two sisters, the children are known as double cousins. Such relationships are very common in the Ozarks, and are considered somehow significant. In referring to each other these people seldom say simply, "He's my cousin," but rather, "We're double cousins." The word cousin may indicate a very distant relationship, but own cousin always means first cousin. —Vance Randolph's and George Wilson's Down in the Holler, 1953"
The term is known to Wikipedia as "double first cousin," which while more precise I'm sure we all agree is too prosaic to use. The Dictionary of American Regional English confirms FE's citation and adds other sources that confirm double cousins can result from siblings marrying siblings, not only brothers marrying sisters.
---L.
