COUSIN (Fr. cousin, Ital. cugino,

See also:

• LATE

Late

See also:

• LAT

Lat. cosinus, perhaps a popular and

See also:

• FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar

See also:

• ABBREVIATION (Lat. brevis, short)

abbreviation of consobrinus, which has the same sense in classical Latin)  , a term of relationship . Children of brothers and sisters are to each other first cousins, or cousinsgerman; the children of first cousins are to each other second cousins, and so on; the child of a first cousin is to the first cousin of his father or mother a first cousin once removed . The word cousin has also, since the 16th century, been used by sovereigns as an honorific style in addressing persons of exalted, but not equal sovereign, rank, the term " brother " being reserved as the style used by one sovereign in addressing another . Thus, in Great Britain, dukes, marquesses and earls are addressed by the sovereign in royal writs, &c., as " cousin." In France the kings thus addressed princes of the blood royal, cardinals and archbishops, dukes and peers, the marshals of France, the grand officers of the crown and certain foreign princes . In Spain the right to be thus addressed is a privilege of the grandees .