the.com/niece
the relative you can spoil rotten then hand back, guilt-free, to her parents.
means the daughter of one's brother or sister (or of one's spouse's brother or sister).
from From Old French "nièce," which traces back to Latin "neptis" — the feminine of "nepos," meaning grandchild, descendant, or nephew. That Latin root has deep cousins across the Indo-European family (Sanskrit "napat," Old English "nift"), all circling the same idea of a younger relative one step down the family tree. English borrowed the French form after the Norman Conquest, gradually edging out the native "nift."
- word origin
- From Latin neptis, once meaning granddaughter too.
- royal loophole
- Many monarchs named nieces heirs over distant sons.
- sly history
- Niece long disguised a powerful man's secret daughter.
- aunt science
- Aunts share roughly 25 percent of a niece's genes.