agnate

Jul. 8th, 2010 07:08 am
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[personal profile] prettygoodword
agnate (AG-nayt) - n., a relative whose relation is traced only through males; a paternal male relative. adj., related to someone by male connections or on the paternal side.


So not avuncular. Borrowed around 1530 from Latin agnātus, paternal kinsman, the past participle of adgnāscī, to be born in addition to (as on dictionary translates it), from ad- + nāscī, to be born -- which suggests how important the Romans considered maternal descent.

---L.

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