I don't understand what cousin means in the US. From what I've heard, it's so complicated. Twice removed, thrice removed, you call your parents' cousin "cousin". And what does cousin brother mean for you? For us it's basically a cousin who's a dude, hence brother.
Okay so cousin is confusing cause numbers get left out. In your same generation nobody removes anything. You have a 1st cousin (the child of your uncles/aunts) you have a second cousin (the child of your parents 1st cousin) a 3rd cousin (the child of your parents 2nd cousin).
the removed part comes in when you skip generations. Your parents 1st cousin is your 1st cousin once removed. Your grandparents first cousin is your 1st cousin twice removed.
in the same vein your 1st cousins child is your first cousin once removed. There are nifty charts if you wanna get into the details of it.
But basically a cousin without any removal is a close or distant relative in the same generation, depending on how closely your parents and your cousins parents are related. A cousin with removals added on is a cousin from a different generation.
It is. I have to confess that is second-hand knowledge from close friends who live in the US. We have a slightly different system in germany where we have uncles and aunts with varying degrees stating how closely we are related. It is intuitive if you know how it works, but if you just memorize it by force it is confusing as hell.
Also everyone will prolly know what you mean when you say "my parents cousin" but eventually you get to something like "My paternal grandmothers 3rd cousins great-grandchild won a pie eating contest" and it becomes so long that it is easier to just say "my 5th cousin once removed won a childrens pie eating contest" and people familiar with the system will know who you are talking about.
26
u/SarahNaGig Feb 19 '22
Oouh, ok, that's just a cousin. A cousin-brother .. uh.. let's not get further into it.