kinsman

/ˈkɪnzmən/

/ˈkɪnsmɪn/

Other forms: kinsmen

Your kinsman is your family member — someone who's related to you. Even if you don't know your second cousin very well, he's still your kinsman.

The noun kinsman can refer to any blood relation or ancestor, especially those who are male. You can also use kinswoman to talk about female relatives. The word is a formal one that you might come across in an anthropology textbook or a family history: "The first kinsman to leave England came on the Mayflower." Kinsman comes in part from kin, with its Old English root cynn, or "family."

Definitions of kinsman

1. noun

   a male relative
   types:

   male sibling

   a sibling who is male

   nephew

   a son of your brother or sister

   uncle

   the brother of your father or mother; the husband of your aunt

   blood brother, brother

   a male with the same parents as someone else

   grandnephew, great-nephew

   a son of your niece or nephew

   granduncle, great-uncle

   an uncle of your father or mother

   type of:

   relation, relative

   a person related by blood or marriage