The Demopædia Encyclopedia on Population is under heavy modernization and maintenance. Outputs could look bizarre, sorry for the temporary inconvenience

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Blood, relative

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
Revision as of 19:43, 7 November 2009 by NBBot (talk | contribs) (Eugen Grebenik et al., first edition 1958)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Blood, relative  (BLOOD, relative)


Persons related through common descent 1 from the same progenitor 2 or ancestor 2 are called blood relatives 3 or genetic relatives 3 . The terms kin 3 and in an aggregate sense kinship group 3 are also used. The degree of relationship 4 is generally computed by reference to the number of steps which are necessary before a common ancestor is reached, but there are many different methods of computation. The fundamental relation in each of these steps is the filial relation 5 (cf. 112-6* and 112-7*) of child to parent, which is the reciprocal of parenthood 6 (112-2*) i.e. the relation of a couple or of a father or a mother to offspring 7 or progeny 7 . Blood relationship must be distinguished from relationship by marriage 8, which marriage establishes between one spouse and the kin of the other.

  • 1. Descent, n. - descendant, n.: one linked through descent
  • 2. Ancestor, n. - ancestral, adj.
  • 3. Relative, n. - related, adj. - relationship, n.: the state of being related. The term relative is used for persons related by blood or marriage.
    Kin, n. and adj. - kinship, n.: the state of being kin. Relatives is sometimes also used for the collection of all kin.
  • 7. Progeny, n.: this term may also be used for all of the descendants of a common ancestor.
  • 8. In certain countries persons related by marriage may be referred to as in-laws: wife's family of origin are in-laws to husband and vice versa.

More...