What About Those English Cousins? 1. The role of a dictionary is to report how people do use language, not to prescribe how people should use language, although, admittedly, there are certain arrogant people who seem to enjoy lording it over others by proclaiming the "proper" use of a word based upon no more reliable an authority than a collection compiled by some fallible human beings who have nothing better to do with their time. 2. The Oxford English Dictionary is exactly that: an English dictionary. It is not an "American" dictionary, or a dictionary of "American English." It has no more authority over Americans or American usage than the Queen herself, an issue that was pretty well settled in 1776. 3. Any culture has as much right/authority to determine and define its terms of relationship as any other. In our country, for example, "uncle" may be applied equally to your father's or mother's brother and to your father's or mother's sister's husband. In other words, he may be an uncle "by blood," or an uncle "by marriage." But in our culture, he's still just "your uncle." Other cultures may use other terms to distinguish. 4. You observe that the OED defines cousin (and specifically "first cousin") as the child of one's uncle or aunt. Suppose, for example, your uncle is an uncle-by-marriage, and that he was married and had children before he married your aunt. Are his children by that previous marriage your "cousins"? They certainly are not. Unless you want to call them "step cousins." Yet, in many families, they are simply referred to as cousins, because it's polite, respectful, and convenient. 5. And how about "our English cousins" or "our American cousins"? I've heard these terms off and on throughout most of my lifetime. Is this "incorrect" because the OED didn't authorize it? Permission to reprint articles from RootsWeb Review is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, provided: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Previously published in RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 52, 25 December 2002. Sally Rolls Pavia Sun City, AZ [email protected] List Owner: [email protected] "Without genealogy, the study of history is lifeless." All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus 2002