nephew
/ˈnɛv.ju/ noun, proper noun
Forms nephews
- noun A son of one's sibling, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law; either a son of one's brother (fraternal nephew) or a son of one's sister (sororal nephew).
- noun A son of one's cousin or cousin-in-law
- noun (archaic) A son of one's child.
- noun Descendant
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English nevew, neveu (“nephew, grandson”), from Old French neveu, from Latin nepos, nepōtem, from Proto-Italic *nepōts (“nephew, grandson”), whence also French neveu, Italian nipote. Displaced or absorbed the inherited English neve (“nephew, grandson, male cousin”), from Middle English neve, from Old English nefa, from Proto-West Germanic *nefō, from Proto-Germanic *nefô (“nephew, grandson”), whence Dutch neef, German Neffe. All ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *népōts (“grandchild, sister's son”). Cognate with Serbo-Croatian nećak, Irish nia, Persian نوه (nave). Doublet of neve.
Spelt with -ph- by readaptation to Latin nepos since the 15th century, which later triggered the spelling pronunciation with /f/.
English surname, from the noun nephew.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A grandson or grandchild, or remoter lineal descendant. [Obs.]
- noun A cousin. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [OE. neveu, nevou, nevu, fr. F. neveu, OF. also, nevou, L. nepos; akin to AS. nefa, D. neef, G. neffe, OHG. nevo, Icel. nefi a kinsman, gr. nepat grandson, descendant. sq. root262. Cf. Niece, Nepotism.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “nephew”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details