Familial Terms

I was memorizing vocabulary from the page of familial terms in The Oxford Picture Dictionary, when I realized they'd made a small error, by failing to correctly indicate the difference between a siostreniec and a bratanek. Poles seem to specify gender of relations, including intermediaries, more finely than speakers of other languages. I decided to compile a list of the more-complex familial terms I could discover in my dictionary (PWN-Oxford Multimedialny Słownik 2005) and through Wikipedia (pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relacja_rodzinna). Since this list might be useful to other learners, I'm posting it here. Enjoy!

Familial Relationships/Powinowactwa lub Koligacja

Great-Grandparents & Great-Grandchildren
great-grandfather: pradziadek, pradziad
great-gradmother: prababcia, prababka
great-grandson: prawnuk
great-granddaughter: prawnuczka

Uncles & Aunts
uncle: wuj
uncle (paternal [father's brother/brother-in-law]): styj
uncle (husband of parent's sister): wuj pociot, wuj naciot
aunt: ciotka
aunt (wife of parent's brother): wujenka, wujna

Nephews & Nieces
nephew (brother's son): bratanek
nephew (sister's son): siostrzeniec
niece (brother's daughter): bratanica
niece (sister's daughter): siostrzenica

Cousins
sibling: rodzeństwo
cousin (aunt's child): rodzeństwo cioteczne
cousin (aunt's son): brat cioteczny
cousin (aunt's daugter): siostra cioteczna
cousin (uncle's child): rodzeństwo stryjeczne
cousin (uncle's son): brat stryjeczny
cousin (uncle's daugter): siostra stryjeczna
cousin: kuzyn
second cousin: drugi kuzyn/druga kuzynka
third cousin: trzeci kuzin/trzecia kuzynka

Inlaws
father-in-law: teść, świekier, śwokier
mother-in-law: teściowa, świekra
son-in-law: zięć
daughter-in-law: synowa
brother-in-law: szwagier
sister-in-law (sister of wife or husband): szwagierka
sister-in-law (wife of brother): bratowa

Stepfamily
stepfather: ojczym
stepmother: macocha
stepson: pasierb
stepdaughter: pasierbica
stepbrother: przyrodni brat
stepsister: przyrodnia siostra

Twins
twin: bliźniak
twin-brother: brat-bliźniak
twin-sister: siostra-bliźniaczka

adopted: przybrany

Corrections and comments are most welcome.

While searching for a thread in WordReference's forums I might have appended this information to, I found one with an interesting list of familial diminutives, compiled by meta_fora:

forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=772690

I thought I'd format this information nicely and include it here:

matka (mother)
Modern Diminutives: mama, mamusia, mamcia, mamuś, mamunia
Archaic Diminutives: mateczka, matuś, matula, matusia

ojciec (father)
Modern Diminutives: tata, tatuś, tatunio
Archaic Diminutives: tatko, tatulo, ojczulek, papa, papko

babcia (grandmother)
Diminutives: babuś, babunia, babusia, babuńcia

dziadek (grandfather)
Diminutives: dziadzio, dziadziuś

Don't even try to call Polish "wujek" like that:)), weird! Never heard such "names"

very nice list, I'm translating to Swedish right now. But did you forget brother and sister?
edit: and are there no words for doublecousins and halfcousins?

Maybe if I weren't too fond of them. [-; Those terms came from the Wikipedia article for "relacja rodzinna". In fact I could only imagine somebody using those terms if they wanted to make it very clear that that uncle is not a blood-uncle -- and I can only imagine someone doing that in case of some contempt.

Of course I should have put wujek before wuj, as this is colloquial, but I don't seem to be able to edit my original post!

Someone else pointed out to me the following clarifications for inlaws:

father-in-law (husband's father): świekier, śwokier
mother-in-law (husband's mother): świekra
father-in-law (wife's father): teść
mother-in-law (wife's mother): teściowa


Nope -- my intention was to focus on the more advanced familial terms, but feel free to expand this list to include those too if you wish. I also left out 'father', 'mother', 'wife', 'husband', 'grandfather', 'grandmother', and other simple terms. I suppose they would be easy enough to have added, but I figured those were all pretty commonly known, even for beginners. There are probably more complex ones that I missed too. Speaking of which...


Are you pulling my leg? [-: Wait, I guess not... I'd never heard of such words before, but Wikipedia has enlightened me! In fact, I'd never thought about this stuff so much before today. I have no idea what the Polish terms for these would be, if they exist. Perhaps someone else here could help us with that?

Here's what they mean, according to Wikipedia:

"Half-siblings share only one parent. Extrapolating from that, if one of John's parents and one of Mary's parents are half-siblings, then John and Mary are half-first cousins."

"Double first cousins arise when two siblings reproduce with another set of siblings and the resulting children are related to each other through both parents' families. Double first cousins share both sets of grandparents in common and have double the degree of consanguinity than ordinary first cousins."

Many dzięks and congrats on your familial terms. One thing I have wondered about for some time, and it is included in your list, is calling a stepsister siostra przyrodnia. Przyrodnia is a half-sister ie sharing one of the two parents.

One's stepsister is a total stranger (no common blood), and I fear Polish lacks a porper term for that. Someone has suggested siostra przyszywana but that is highly colloquial and hardly a standard, let alone legal term.

In such case "siostra przybrana" or "brat przybrany"

Very popular in Poland are also "godparents" -"rodzice chrzestni", short: "chrzestni"

matka chrzestna or "chrzestna" - godmother
ojciec chrzestny or "chrzestny" - godfather

Fogot to add:
chrześnica - goddaughter
chrześniak - godson


In Polish double first cousins called as you mentioned:

cousin (aunt's child): rodzeństwo cioteczne
cousin (aunt's son): brat cioteczny
cousin (aunt's daugter): siostra cioteczna
cousin (uncle's child): rodzeństwo stryjeczne
cousin (uncle's son): brat stryjeczny
cousin (uncle's daugter): siostra stryjeczna


Half first cousins are "kuzyn" or "kuzynka" but some people don't mention "half" and call them same as first cousins.

Most of the time people in Poland call their cousins (any degree) - kuzyn/ka