The names of kinship in Russian are quite diverse. This is a whole group of words that originate from ancient times. For example, the wife's brother is the husband's brother-in-law.
Each person has quite a few relatives. Perhaps not all of them are close-minded people, but the relationship has not yet been canceled.
In Russian, almost every related thread has its own name. According to historians, this came from the fact that in the old days, starting from antiquity, people lived in large families. All relatives were known and respected, not only close ones, but also distant ones.
Brother of wife and brother of husband
Words denoting relatives have very deep linguistic roots. To understand this, it is worth looking into the etymological dictionary. Almost all words of this group come either from common Slavic roots, or even older. In any case, words similar to Russian can be found in other languages as well.
The wife's brother is called brother-in-law. If you trace the entire etymological chain, then, in the end, you can see that the word "brother-in-law" comes from the word "sew", which originally meant "to connect, to connect". In fact, a brother-in-law is a person related to his wife by blood ties.
In the same way, you can find out the origin of the word "son-in-law". A son-in-law, in particular, is called a sister's husband. It turns out that the word "son-in-law" literally means "of the same kind, relative."
If we go further, the husband will call his wife's sister sister-in-law. But the husband of this sister will be a brother-in-law. The etymology of these words is more transparent, they come from the word "our", which is understandable.
Remained in history and riddles of kinship: “Two husbands, two brother-in-law, brother and brother-in-law with sons-in-law went fishing. How many people are there?"
A little more about family ties
It makes sense to consider not only who the wife's relatives are to the husband, but also to find out the name of family ties from the other side. If a husband has a brother and a sister, how can the wife call them and by whom will she be brought to the husband's relatives?
The husband's brother is called a brother-in-law. The husband's sister is a sister-in-law. And the wife will be their daughter-in-law. The word “daughter-in-law” is synonymous with the word “daughter-in-law,” but that is how the father-in-law usually calls the wife of his son, and everyone else calls her daughter-in-law.
The husband's father is the father-in-law, the husband's mother is the mother-in-law.
The wife's father is a father-in-law, the wife's mother is a mother-in-law.
A son-in-law is a daughter's husband, a sister-in-law's husband, or a sister-in-law's husband
This, of course, does not exhaust the list of relatives. In modern society, not all names of kinship ties are in common use. But knowing them is perhaps useful. At least in order to solve logic puzzles.
