[B-Greek] cousin?

Barry nebarry at verizon.net
Thu Mar 27 19:22:01 EDT 2008


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nikolaos Adamou" <nikolaos.adamou at hotmail.com>
To: "George F Somsel" <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>; <wmhboyd at aol.com>; 
<b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] cousin?


> In English the dominant
> factor is the “cousin” relationship.  “Cousins”
> are used for both cousins as well as nephews.

Not in my sense of English.  A nephew is my brother's son.  A cousin is my 
uncle's son.  A niece is my brother's daughter, a cousin is my uncle's 
daughter.

Of course, I don't really speak English so much as I talk American, but in 
common usage I have never seen "cousin" and "nephew" used as synonyms.

(if you look it up, such as at dictionary.com, "cousin" can be used of more 
distant relationships, such as those descended from a common ancestor, etc. 
There are also first and second cousins, once or twice removed, and all 
that).

To keep this related to Greek, like most Greek words, ANEYIOS simply does 
not have quite the same range of meaning as either the English "cousin" or 
"nephew," and the precise relationship, if that's important, has to be 
derived from context.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Professor, WRTS
http://www.wittenbergreformed.org
Mentor, TNARS http://www.tnars.net/
Classics Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net

and me:

http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog




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