What is the difference between grand and great nephew

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The awkward case of 'his or her'. I have always understood "great-nephew" to mean the son of one's niece or nephew and, until coming upon this thread, have never encountered "grand nephew" as a substitute.

I agree with those who contend that "great-nephew" is the historically correct form and that "grand nephew" is the invention of some to whom it seems more linguistically logical. Keep it simple New Member English English. Why change for changes sake? Every other appropriate variation is great, great great or great great great, To use the good old English maxim Some languages such as Norwegian have a set of family relationship terms that tend to function as a system.

For example you start off with the terms in Norwegian of course brother, sister, father, mother, son, daughter and you then derive all other relationships from these terms. Thus your paternal grandfather is your father's-father ; your nephew is your brother's-son quite distinct from your sister's-son ; your uncle could be your mother's-brother. Having such a system means that if you don't know the precise term for a relationship, you can derive it. Similarly if you meet a new term such as father's-mother's-brother , you can work out precisely what the relationship is.

Note that this is much more accurate than great-uncle who could be one of four possibilities: father's-father's-brother, father's-mother's-brother, mother's-mother's-brother, mother's-father's-brother. English by contrast, has only a partial system with a lot of individual terms such as cousin-twice-removed and a lot of ambiguity. With a system you can use logic to help you determine correctness, but with a mere set of words, the only determinant of correctness has to be usage.

Thus if a majority of Americans concur that they use grand-nephew , then this must be deemed correct. A sociologist would have a field day postulating which changes in society caused a breakdown in either the system or the set of terms for family relations.

I am sure that I am not alone in being rather vague as to what a grand-niece , or a third-cousin might be. If I am indeed typical, this might suggest that many of the more esoteric terms are in the process of linguistic decay and eventual death.

Certainly, here in New Zealand the terms bro and cuz have expanded their meanings to subsume a great number of relationships. Last edited by a moderator: Jan 4, Dimcl said:.

Many genealogists and I am an amateur one have begun stressing the use of "Grand Nephew" for the situation you describe at least here in North America because it is emminently logical. The use of "Great" niece or "Great" Nephew is the only instance of illogical titles in a family tree hierarchy.

Your parents' parents are your "grand"parents and you are their "grand"child. You are two generations apart. Your grandparents' parents are your "great"-grandparents. You are three generations apart. It thus makes no sense at all to have a nephew who is two generations removed from you to be your "Great" Nephew. I'm glad you asked this question because your mostly hear people refer to their "great" nephew and when I explain the lack of logic behind it, I see the lightbulbs come on.

As soon as I explain it, people tell me it makes absolute sense to use "grand" instead of "great". And, by the way, most genealogy programs either on computer or on paper , here in North America, refer to these relationships as "grand" and not "great". Welcome to the forums, lewisld Do you also say "grand - uncle" and "grand - aunt"?

New Word List Word List. Save This Word! We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms. Origin of great-nephew First recorded in — Words nearby great-nephew Great Mogul , Great Mother , great mountain buttercup , great muscle , Great Neck , great-nephew , greatness , great-niece , great northern diver , Great oaks from little acorns grow , great organ.