-in-lawcomb. formn.
/ˈɪnlɔː/, U.S. /ˈɪnˌlɔ/, /ˈɪnˌlɑ/ as a combining form, primary stress is retained by the usual stressed syllable of the preceding element and vowels may sometimes be reduced accordingly. A phrase appended to names of relationship, as father, mother, brother, sister, son, etc., to indicate that the relationship is not by nature, but in the eye of the Canon Law, with reference to the degrees of affinity within which marriage is prohibited. These forms can be traced back to the 14th cent.: see brother-in-law n. Formerly -in-law was also used to designate those relationships which are now expressed by step-, e.g. son-in-law = stepson n., father-in-law n. = stepfather n.; this, though still locally or vulgarly current, is now generally considered a misuse. In recent colloquial or journalistic phraseology, in-law has been humorously used to designate any relative so connected. Hence in-ˈlawry n. the position of an ‘in-law’. ˈin-lawship n. the state of being an in-law.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > [noun] > relationship by marriage
affinitya1325
match1574
in-lawry1894
in-lawship1954
1894 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 24 The position of the ‘in-laws’ (a happy phrase which is attributed..to her Majesty, than whom no one can be better acquainted with the article) is often not very apt to promote happiness.
1898 Daily News 7 Jan. 4/7 ‘Don't live with them’—with the ‘in-laws’.
1898 Westm. Gaz. 1 Apr. 1/3 Everyone living is either an ‘in-law’ himself, and therefore bound to possess corresponding ‘in-laws’, or his ‘in-law’ potentiality remains intact.
1898 Westm. Gaz. 1 Apr. 1/3 ‘In-lawry’ is the common fate of the entire human race.
1912 D. F. Canfield Squirrel Cage i. 10 Her mother felt the usual in-law conclusion about her daughter's life.
1926 C. Sidgwick Sack & Sugar i. 9 Eva had invited her future in-laws, male and female, to five o'clock a day or two before her wedding.
1926 C. Sidgwick Sack & Sugar vii. 77 He is lost to everyone but his wife and his in-laws.
1939 N. S. Colby Remembering i. 19 Robert's sister Catherine has to mix in-law amenities with adoring love.
1952 A. Grimble Pattern of Islands 205 A retired..policeman, married to a local woman and on a visit to his in-laws.
1954 M. Gluckman in E. E. Evans-Pritchard Inst. Primitive Society vi. 69 This immediately established links of in~lawship with people who were, by standards of blood-ties, his enemies.
1957 V. W. Turner Schism & Continuity in Afr. Society ix. 258 Links of in-lawship between villages.
1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 368/1 An indefinite number of affinal relatives or ‘in-laws’.
1965 G. Melly Owning-up xv. 190 He was living with his wife and baby daughter in his in-laws' semi out at Mill Hill.
1970 Daily Tel. 8 May 17 How difficult and unnatural are in-law relationships!
1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard iii. 91 His in-laws bought the furniture for the new house.
1972 R. Milner in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. 374 The small salary added to his wife's keeping his in-law landlords quiet as he sweated through his first year of accounting.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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comb. formn.1894