means A connection or link between two or more things, people, or ideas — whether by kinship, logic, or correspondence.

from From Latin 'relatio,' meaning a bringing back or reporting, built from 're-' (back) plus 'latus,' the past participle of 'ferre' (to carry or bear). So at its root a relation is something carried back — a thing referred to another. It entered English through Old French 'relacion' in the late Middle Ages, first as the act of telling or referring, later widening to the kinship and logical senses we lean on today.