There will be a lot of buzz about China for the next two weeks. Yesterday I had an "aha moment". With the one child rule in China, there will now be generations coming up who have no cousins. No aunts. No uncles. Everyone is an only child. What a social change for a society that respects family and ancestors.
This is the weekend of our family reunion and I am glad I have lots of cousins. I treasure the aunts and uncles still here and look forward to seeing everyone this afternoon.Without real cousins the Chinese will have to settle for kissin' cousins. This is a definition I found while Googling. It doesn't mean it is correct, but it sounds right.
" 'Kissin' cousins' is a sourthern Americanism that predates the Civil War. The term at first referred to a distant blood relationshi but today means a very close friend who is considered family. The 'Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins' states: It still is used in its original sense of a relative far removed enough to permit marriage, "an eighth cousin" in the North.'Kissin' cousins' does not derive from kith and kin.Kin stems from the Middle English word 'cynn' meaning race, kind or people. It's a derivative of the word 'kindred' meaning related by birth or (incorrectly) marriage. Kin refers to one's relatives collectively.Kith literally means knowledge of etiquette (believe it or not) but has come to mean familiar friends, neighbors, countrymen or acquaintances.The term kith and kin means one's relations and/or family connections."
This is the weekend of our family reunion and I am glad I have lots of cousins. I treasure the aunts and uncles still here and look forward to seeing everyone this afternoon.Without real cousins the Chinese will have to settle for kissin' cousins. This is a definition I found while Googling. It doesn't mean it is correct, but it sounds right.
" 'Kissin' cousins' is a sourthern Americanism that predates the Civil War. The term at first referred to a distant blood relationshi but today means a very close friend who is considered family. The 'Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins' states: It still is used in its original sense of a relative far removed enough to permit marriage, "an eighth cousin" in the North.'Kissin' cousins' does not derive from kith and kin.Kin stems from the Middle English word 'cynn' meaning race, kind or people. It's a derivative of the word 'kindred' meaning related by birth or (incorrectly) marriage. Kin refers to one's relatives collectively.Kith literally means knowledge of etiquette (believe it or not) but has come to mean familiar friends, neighbors, countrymen or acquaintances.The term kith and kin means one's relations and/or family connections."
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