Great grand xxxx

[emmygee]

G'day everyone,
I was reading a legal document recently and something in it referring to how we address people caught my eye.
Most people nowadays have parents, we know them as our father and mother. They had parents who are our GRAND parents, grandfather & grandmother. Their parents were our GREAT GRAND parents, and so on.
Going the other direction, if we have children they are our sons & daughters, Their children are our GRAND children, grandsons & granddaughters, and their children will be our GREAT GRAND children, and so on.
What caught my eye was the words 'greatniece' & 'greatnephew', the children of a niece. Strange, I thought, shouldn't that be grandniece & grandnephew? Then it occured to me that in my family our grandfather's sister was referred to as 'greataunt xxxx'. I have noticed other people using the same terminology as well, so its not just in my family.
So, I guess that the questions are, what is 'correct', what do great & grand mean, is there a difference and does it really matter? (And the answer is not 42, although it might well be).
Cheers

[Andrew Tarr]

Maybe the French word 'grand' meaning large (=great) is significant?  Grande Bretagne = Great Britain.

But the French have 'enfants' (children) but petits-enfants (little children).  And great-grandparents are 'arrière grandparents' which I don't really understand.

[Mike in Cumbria]

Leaving aside what is "correct", your family's use of "great aunt" etc seems pretty normal and standard to me (in the UK). Are you saying that it is illogical? If so, you're probably right - after all a grandparent's sister or brother is a great aunt or great uncle, whereas logically it shout be a grand-aunt or grand-uncle.  Language isn't always logical though, thank goodness.

[Jebber]

Looking at it logically, grand seem more appropriate than great, but the term Great aunt or uncle seems to have been the norm in here U.K., whereas Americans seem to more commonly adopt the term grand aunt etc.

Jebber

[Gan Yam]

I thought Anc** used a combination of Great and Grand (eg Great Grand aunt) but have just checked and they are just using Great - must have changed it.

Great or Grand whichever you use makes you feel old when you add it twice in front of your aunt title  and not even in your "senior years"!! 

[Rosinish]

For me;

Take Great Grandmother who had a brother, to me he would be my Great Granduncle.

My Grandmother had (the only one of her siblings I knew) a brother who I would say was my Granduncle.

I would say the "Great" determines the generation?

As always, my own opinion.

Annie

[McGroger]

G’day, emmygee,

The “correct” terminology would be “grand- “ and “great-grand-“ as Annie says, and as genealogists we should probably use it for consistency when talking genealogy.

But, as we know, English changes with usage, not logic. In everyday parlance, “grandfather” is common, and easily understood, whereas to say someone has a “grand father” is uncommon and, unless carefully spoken, will cause confusion.

On the other hand, if I said I had a (run-together) “granduncle”, the listener would probably ask me to repeat what I’d just said. If I said I had a (carefully separated) “grand uncle” he might think that I liked my uncle, not that my grandmother’s brother was still alive.

 So, in everyday language we tend to use “great-uncle”, which logically is just as bad but causes less confusion amongst non-practitioners of our noble art.

(Perhaps we should “grand-unk”.)

Cheers,
Peter

[Rudolf H B]

Hi,

might be helpful

Pubilc Domain, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European_kinship_system_en.svg

regards Rudolf

[emmygee]

HI everyone,

Many thanks for all of your thoughts. It looks like a case of when in Rome.....etc.

Peter, I have a nephew who called me unk when he was young, never heard the term since until you mentioned it.

Rudolf, That is a very nice diagram, I like it, much easier to visualise than the usual diamond shaped one. It does sit on the fence though, great-aunt & great-uncle, but grand-niece & grand- nephew.

Cheers
Maurice