means The state of being related by blood, marriage, or shared origin — and, by extension, any deep sense of connection or belonging between people.

from From Old English 'cynn' — kin, family, race, kind — the same root that gives us 'kind' (both the noun 'a kind of thing' and the adjective 'kindly,' because to be kind was originally to act as your kin should). To this Anglo-Saxon core, English later bolted '-ship,' the same suffix in 'friendship' and 'hardship,' which traces back to 'shape' — so kinship is, quite literally, the shape your kin takes. The word is a cousin of the German 'Kind' (child) and reaches back to a Proto-Germanic root tied to birth and begetting.