What does cousinage mean?
Cousinage is a rare English noun denoting the relationship of being cousins — kinship through cousinhood — and, in older usage, the cousins of a family regarded collectively. Borrowed into English from French, it carries an antique, literary quality that sets it apart from everyday words like 'family' or 'relatives'. Where modern speakers would say 'my cousins' or speak of 'extended family', a writer reaching for cousinage evokes the entire web of cousinly connection at once: the shared blood, the inherited resemblances, the loose network of relations one knows chiefly through gatherings and correspondence. Today the word survives mainly in historical prose, genealogical writing, and deliberate archaism, and many dictionaries mark it as obsolete or very rare. For readers and writers interested in the richer corners of the English vocabulary of kinship, it remains a charming alternative to plainer terms.
Kinship or relationship through being cousins; the state of cousinhood.
"Their cousinage was plain in the family resemblance that ran through the whole gathering."
Chiefly historical or literary; rare in contemporary usage.
Cousins collectively; the body of cousins belonging to a family or kindred.
"The whole cousinage assembled for the old matriarch's ninetieth birthday."
As an abstract term for kinship, cousinage is usually uncountable; a plural is rare and would refer to multiple distinct bodies of cousins.
"The two cousinages had intermarried for generations."
Before 'cousin crew' there was cousinage — an elegant old English word for the whole web of cousins in a family, now so rare that most dictionaries barely whisper it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cousinage
Cousinage comes from Old French, formed from 'cousin' with the noun-forming suffix '-age'. The French 'cousin' itself derives from Latin 'consobrinus', meaning the child of a mother's sibling — a maternal cousin. The word was adopted into English in the medieval period alongside other French '-age' formations such as 'marriage' and 'lineage', though it never achieved their currency and gradually fell out of common use.
How cousinage is actually used
Cousinage is rare and has an antique, literary flavour; it is not part of ordinary modern vocabulary and is best reserved for formal, historical, or deliberately archaising writing. In everyday contexts, terms like 'cousinhood' or simply 'cousins' are more natural.