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names - Is there a single term for "nieces and nephews"?


I find it handy when talking about my sons and daughters I can just say my children. It's nice to say nieces instead of sibling's daughters. I wonder if there is a similar term for nieces and nephews together? I imagine I could say sibling's kids but I was hoping for a single word.



Answer



There seems to be no "official" word for "nieces and nephews".


You will find "nibling", by analogy with sibling. (But it is mentioned only in the "New Words & Slang" section of Merriam-Webster, or in sites like urbandictionary.com)


In this Yahoo answers thread, KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid's answer also mentions:



  • that there is no encompassing word for aunt/uncle either

  • that there is no male/female form of cousin.


The article "There isn't a word for it" (by Neville Goodman, British Journal of General Practice, 2005) also confirms that there is no word for nephews and nieces, and makes the following (humorous) suggestions:



The word sibling comes from Old English, and just means related by blood. I suggest taking the parental ‘p’ to replace the ‘s’, so aunts and uncles are ‘piblings’. Following the pattern, nephews and nieces become ‘niblings’, a nice word that describes what they do to their piblings' bank balances at Christmas and birthdays.



You can find the term used recently in this blog post "The Christmas Gift that Keeps On Giving", but you can also find it in one of the episodes of an old 1980 adventure series "The Moomins":


Excerpt from Moomin Winter featuring the word


(from "Moomin Winter in Moomin Book 5")


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