Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of kuzino
Coloured illustration of kuzino
#1949 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

female cousin

Word origin

Built inside Esperanto from kuzo plus -in-. The root came from French cousin, which goes back to Latin consobrinus, literally the child of your mother's sister - con- plus a derivative of soror, 'sister'.

Origin
Esperanto build on a French root
Root
kuzo + -in-
English cognates
cousin, sorority

Examples

.

My cousin lives in a big city by the sea.

.

Her cousin is only two years younger than she is.

.

My cousins came to the party.

is kuzo plus -in-, the feminine suffix, and there is nothing else to it. The same suffix gives fratino from and patrino from , so by the time you reach this word the machinery should feel automatic. The suffix set is laid out in Affixes: size and people.

Two practical points. First, - collects a mixed group: oj is cousins of both sexes, and it is the natural word when you do not want to list them. Second, on its own is not strictly male in careful usage - it is the base word, and plenty of writers use it for a cousin whose sex is irrelevant, adding -in- only when the sex is the point. That is the standard system. You will also meet a reform proposal in which is explicitly neutral and kuziĉo marks a male; it is used in some communities, it is not in the Fundamento, and you should be able to read it without writing it.

The degrees work as they do in English: is a second cousin, and o is an affectionate diminutive for a small one.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

kuzino: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "kuzino" (female cousin): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 39.