Great-aunt vs Grand-aunt

[ritter]

In Spanish, AFAIK there are no words to distinguish the different kinds of brothers- or sister-in-law. But we do have is the term "concuñado", which refers to your brother- or sister-in-law's spouse.

What has always intrigued me is why in Spanish and Italian (and other romance languages, I suppose) the terms to refer to a son-in-law (yerno, genero) are so different from those that refer to a daughter-in-law (nuera, nuora). Ethymological considerations, I presume, but curious nonetheless.

The terms compadre or comadre also exist, as in Italian, to refer to the relationship between a child's parents and his or her godparents. But, rather confusingly, comadre also means "midwife".

THREAD DUTY: To be honest, I had never encountered "grand-uncle" until this thread. 

[Jo498]

In German it became streamlined to "Schwiegersohn/tochter", probably not too long ago. I think originally it was "Eidam" [Rocco uses this in Fidelio, also "Tochtermann", I have never seen the latter expression elsewhere although it is self-explaining] and "Schnur" (or "Söhnerin", I looked this one up) whereas "Schwieger" meant only the mother-in-law (even without the clarifying "mutter").

[ritter]

In German it became streamlined to "Schwiegersohn/tochter", probably not too long ago. I think originally it was "Eidam" [Rocco uses this in Fidelio, also "Tochtermann", I have never seen the latter expression elsewhere although it is self-explaining] and "Schnur" (or "Söhnerin", I looked this one up) whereas "Schwieger" meant only the mother-in-law (even without the clarifying "mutter").

Interesting, thanks! Yes, I now recall those archaic terms in Fidelio, but have never encountered them in everyday speach.

Another curioisty: in Italian, the same word, nipote, applies to "nephew" and to "grandchild".

[Jo498]

Yeah, they are all archaic and obsolete although I encountered "Eidam" in other 18th/19th century literature.
"nepos" is grandson and nephew already in Latin, similarly "gener" means both son- and brother-in-law.

[Overtones]

In Spanish, AFAIK there are no words to distinguish the different kinds of brothers- or sister-in-law. But we do have is the term "concuñado", which refers to your brother- or sister-in-law's spouse.

What has always intrigued me is why in Spanish and Italian (and other romance languages, I suppose) the terms to refer to a son-in-law (yerno, genero) are so different from those that refer to a daughter-in-law (nuera, nuora). Ethymological considerations, I presume, but curious nonetheless.

The terms compadre or comadre also exist, as in Italian, to refer to the relationship between a child's parents and his or her godparents. But, rather confusingly, comadre also means "midwife".

THREAD DUTY: To be honest, I had never encountered "grand-uncle" until this thread. 

The term we use for your "concuñado" is "cognato acquisito" (acquired brother-in-law), and again it may be both the brother of my sibling's partner and the husband of my wife's sister.