kissing cousin

English

WOTD – 15 May 2022

Etymology

From kissing +‎ cousin.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɪsɪŋ ˈkʌzn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɪsɪŋ ˈkʌz(ə)n/, /-ˈkʌzɪn/
• Rhymes: -ʌzən
• Hyphenation: kiss‧ing cou‧sin

Noun

kissing cousin (plural kissing cousins)

1. A relatively distant relative, or a friend, who is familiar enough to be greeted with a kiss.

   Synonym: kissing kin

2. (figuratively) A thing which is related or similar to another thing.

   Synonyms: cousin, cousin-german, kissing kin

   • 1981 September, George Reiger, “Conservation: What’s in a Name?”, in Field & Stream, volume LXXXVI, number 5, New York, N.Y.: CBS Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 107, column 1:

     [A]fter the initial public brouhaha, wildlife administrators will suddenly decide that the classification of the Aleutian Canada goose as an endangered species was a gross mistake all along. Either the bird will be downgraded to "threatened" status—which means it can be hunted—or it will be declared a nonspecies, as has already happened to all its taxonomic kissing cousins.

   • 1994, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Universe Down to Earth, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 175:

     Silicon is a “kissing cousin” of carbon. Notice it immediately below carbon in the Periodic Table. The arrangement of silicon’s outer electrons resembles those of carbon. For this reason, silicon and carbon are chemically similar.

Translations

relatively distant relative, or friend, familiar enough to be greeted with a kiss

• German: Kuss-Cousin m, Kuss-Cousine f

thing which is related or similar to another thing

Further reading

• Kissing Cousins (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “kissing cousin, n.” under “kissing, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2019.
• “kissing cousin, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.