kinship

Etymology

It is formed from English kin + -ship.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Kin is from Old English cynn (“family; race; kind, sort, rank; nature”), from Proto-Germanic *kunją (“family”), from the Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”) root that also gave genus and Ancient Greek γένος (génos).^[2][3] The suffix -ship is -sciepe, from *-skepi-, a word-forming element for a state or condition.^[2] The OED calls the word a modern one, not found in the dictionaries of Johnson, Todd or Webster (1828),^[3] and Etymonline notes that relationship covers the same sense but is a hybrid.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relationship by descent, blood relationship: Etymonline records the word by 1764.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1786, in the County Magazine;^[3] its 1989 edition and Merriam-Webster gave 1833,^[7][5] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1825–35.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED's first sense is relationship by descent, consanguinity;^[3] modern dictionaries define it as relationship by blood, marriage or adoption.^[8][5] In 1866 J. F. M'Lennan used it in the Fortnightly Review for the recognized ties of descent, marriage or ritual on which a society is organized, the sense it has in anthropology.^[3][4] From 1876, in M. Arnold's Literature and Dogma, it was used figuratively for a likeness in qualities or character, an affinity between people or things.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1764 – relationship by descent; consanguinity.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1786.^[3]
• 1866 – in anthropology, the recognized ties of relationship that form the basis of a society.^[3][4]
• 1876 – figurative, relationship in qualities or character.^[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Relationship by blood, marriage or adoption; family connection: She discovered a kinship with a family of millers in the next valley.^[8][10][5]
2. (anthropology) The recognized ties of descent, marriage or ritual that form the basis of a society's organization: kinship systems.^[3][4][5]
3. A likeness in nature or character; affinity: He felt a kinship with other exiles.^[8][10][3]

Related words

• kin
• kindred

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins