# nephew

Pronunciation: US say "NEF-yoo" /ˈnɛf.ju/; UK say "NEV-yoo" /ˈnɛv.ju/

## Noun

1. The son of one's brother or sister, or of a sibling's husband or wife.
   - Simple: The son of your brother or sister.
   - _My nephew is studying engineering at a college upstate._
   - _At the wedding, both of her nephews served as ushers._
2. The son of one's cousin, or of a cousin's husband or wife.
   - Simple: The son of one of your cousins.
   - _She introduced her cousin's son as her nephew at the family reunion._
   - _His nephews on his cousin's side gathered for the holidays._

## Noun

3. The son of one's own son or daughter; a grandson. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The son of your own child, also called a grandson.
   - _The old lord named his nephew, his son's firstborn, as his heir._
   - _She blessed each of her nephews, the sons of her own children, before the long journey._

## Origin

'Nephew' comes from Middle English 'nevew', from Old French 'neveu', from Latin 'nepos' (nephew, grandson), and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European '*népōts' (grandchild, sister's son). It replaced the older native English word 'neve'. The '-ph-' spelling was reintroduced from the 15th century to match Latin 'nepos', which later led to the /f/ pronunciation.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/nephew (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).