Is there a single term for "nieces and nephews"?

Question

I find it handy when talking about my sons and daughters I can just say my children. It's nice to say nieces instead of sibling's daughters. I wonder if there is a similar term for nieces and nephews together? I imagine I could say sibling's kids but I was hoping for a single word.

In italian, you have one word (nipote) for both, unfortunately the ambiguity doesn't stop there! — Benjol, Dec 08 '10 at 05:42
In some Norwegian dialects you could use "tantebarn" (lit. aunt-children) if you're female. Logically the male equivalent should be "onkelbarn" (uncle-children) but I've never heard it. (Maybe men don't speak that much about children? I've never had the need for a short word for it anyway) — Stein G. Strindhaug, Mar 22 '11 at 09:52
In Norwegian we also have both gendered and a neutral word for cousins: "fetter" for male cousin, "kusine" for female cousin and "søskenbarn" (lit. sibling-children, somewhat illogical I think) for cousins of any gender. — Stein G. Strindhaug, Mar 22 '11 at 09:59
My parents' grandchildren . . and my in-laws' grandchildren. (FAIL) — Eric Wilson, May 06 '11 at 20:19
And in Esperanto there is a prefix ("ge-") meaning both sexes taken together, so, "genevoj" (the "j" marking the plural), in this case. — Hexagon Tiling, Mar 19 '12 at 22:33
In English, the phrases "brothers and sisters", "aunts and uncles", "sons and daughters", "nieces and nephews", are very common. I suspect the only people who feel a need for a single-word expression for "nieces and nephews" are ESL speakers whose native language contained this word. (Or maybe native English speakers who want to say "niece or nephew" when they're unsure about somebody's sex.) — Peter Shor, Oct 07 '12 at 14:15
It's a curious lacuna, considering English has: child(ren), parent, grandparent, grandchild(ren), sibling, cousin, and friend. None of which specify the gender. In Italian you have nipoti for nephews and nieces, or grandchildren, sometimes they can all be clumped together. Italians generally react amazed that English has gender specific words for sibling descendents. Aunts and uncles is swiftly dealt with the expression, "gli zii", which makes me curious as to why there is no English equivalent. — Mari-Lou A, Jan 07 '14 at 09:08

score 62 · Accepted Answer · edited May 19 '18 at 00:34

62

There seems to be no "official" word for "nieces and nephews".

You will find "nibling", by analogy with sibling. (But it is mentioned only in the "New Words & Slang" section of Merriam-Webster, or in sites like urbandictionary.com)

In this Yahoo answers thread, KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid's answer also mentions:

that there is no encompassing word for aunt/uncle either
that there is no male/female form of cousin.

The article "There isn't a word for it" (by Neville Goodman, British Journal of General Practice, 2005) also confirms that there is no word for nephews and nieces, and makes the following (humorous) suggestions:

The word sibling comes from Old English, and just means related by blood. I suggest taking the parental ‘p’ to replace the ‘s’, so aunts and uncles are ‘piblings’. Following the pattern, nephews and nieces become ‘niblings’, a nice word that describes what they do to their piblings' bank balances at Christmas and birthdays.

You can find the term used recently in this blog post "The Christmas Gift that Keeps On Giving", but you can also find it in one of the episodes of an old 1980 adventure series "The Moomins":

Excerpt from Moomin Winter featuring the word "nibling"

^{(from "Moomin Winter in Moomin Book 5")}

edited May 19 '18 at 00:34

herisson

81,803

answered Dec 08 '10 at 06:37

VonC

14,744

7

+1 purely for the moomins. Can I nominate 'ancles' for aunts and uncles? – CJM Dec 08 '10 at 11:29
@CJM: you could, except it might be tricky to pronounce it right ('ancles') and still being able to differentiate it from 'uncles'. If the context is not accurate enough, one could believe your are talking about 'uncles' with a funny accent. – VonC Dec 08 '10 at 11:33
2

@VonC, @CJM, and ankles :) – Benjol Dec 08 '10 at 12:29
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@CJM: How about "auncles" instead? – Jon Purdy Dec 08 '10 at 17:44
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+1 Generally probably the only road forward and there are Moomins, anything with Moomins gets voted up out of principle. – Orbling Dec 08 '10 at 20:51
I was joking about 'ancles'... I think the linked article suggests 'piblings' us a similar logic to 'niblings' (i.e. Parent's sIBLINGS) – CJM Dec 09 '10 at 09:49
This is Anna, my cousinette from Toledo. – GEdgar Jul 04 '11 at 14:52
The Nibling in The Moomins isn't a nephew or niece but one of The Niblings. – Hugo Oct 21 '11 at 11:40

score -1 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 24 '23 at 15:47

Nibling is the most common, but alternatives include nephling or niefling:

nephling: (rare) A nibling
My dear neph-ling: I congratulate you on the attainment of your degree as “Master of Arts.” […] Your affectionate uncle, Cinna Beverley. [link]

niefling: (rare) A nibling
I come from a very large family (three brothers, three sisters, about as many aunts and uncles, and loads more cousins and nieflings) almost all of whom I've fallen out of contact with and honestly don't feel bad about it. [link]

(Definitions from Wiktionary)

Is there a single term for "nieces and nephews"?

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