cognate, a. and n.
(ˈkɒgneɪt)
Also (in sense B 1) cognat.
[ad. L. cognātus, f. co- together + gnātus born, f. root gn-, gen-, gon- to produce. In Eng. the transferred sense appeared earliest.]
A. adj.
1. Descended from a common ancestor; of the same stock or family.
| 1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids 78 Some of their cognate tribes. 1864 Kirk Chas. Bold II. iv. ii. 251 The barriers between cognate states. 1880 Muirhead tr. Instit. Gaius i. §156 Agnates are..persons who are of kin through males,—cognate, as it were, through the father. |
2. Of languages: Descended from the same original language; of the same linguistic family. Of words: Coming naturally from the same root, or representing the same original word, with differences due to subsequent separate phonetic development; thus, Eng. five, L. quinque, Gr. πέντε, are cognate words, representing a primitive *pénke.
| 1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids 61 A cognate language. 1837 Prichard Phys. Hist. Mankind (ed. 3) II. 19 A cognate dialect of the Berber speech. 1868 Gladstone Juv. Mundi ii. (1870) 58 The cognate word agrios appears to have gone through the same process as agrestis and argeios. |
b. Grammar. cognate object or cognate accusative: An object of kindred sense or derivation; spec. that which may adverbially follow an intransitive verb, as in ‘to die the death’.
| 1874 Roby Lat. Gram. iv. viii. II. 40 The extent of action of the verb may be expressed by a substantive of the same meaning as the verb (Cognate accusative). 1876 Mason Eng. Gram. §372 What is often termed the cognate accusative (or objective) (as in ‘to run a race’) should more properly be classed among the adverbial adjuncts. |
3. gen. Akin in origin; allied in nature, and hence, akin in quality; kindred, related, connected, having affinity. (Const. with, rarely to.)
| c 1645 Howell Lett. iv. l, Which atomes..never rest till they meet with som pores proportionable and cognate unto their figures. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies iii. iii. 455 Comets and Fiery Meteors are cognate. 1785 Warton Notes on Milton's Poems (T.), Imbrute, I believe, is a word of Milton's coinage. So was the cognate compound ‘imparadised’ supposed to be. 1821 Southey Vis. Judgm. vi, Honouring each in the other Kindred courage and virtue, and cognate knowledge and freedom. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 399 Geometry and the cognate sciences. |
B. n.
1. Roman Law. One related by blood to another; a kinsman; pl. those descended from the same ancestor, whether through males or females. Thus distinguished from agnate, which was limited to legal relationship through the father only, though including relationship by adoption. Hence b. Sc. Law. A relative on the mother's side as opposed to an agnate.
| 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 85 The custody of the pupil's person..is..committed to the mother while a widow, until the pupil be seven years old; and, in default of the mother, to the next cognate. 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law i. vii. §3 We understand by agnates all those who are related by the father..and by cognates those who are related by the mother. 1832 Austin Jurispr. (1879) II. xxxvi. 631 [The mother] could not succeed to..[the son] as an agnat though she could succeed to him as his cognat. 1880 Muirhead tr. Instit. Gaius i. §156 Those who are of kin through females are not agnates, but merely by natural law cognates. |
c. Hindu and Muslim Law. A relative of a deceased person through the mother (see also quot. 1949).
| 1902 in Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 281/2. 1949 A. A. A. Fyzee Outl. Muhammadan Law 344 A cognate is a person related to the deceased through one or more female links; for example, the daughter's son or the daughter's daughter, the mother's father or the father's mother's father. 1963 J. D. M. Derrett Introd. Mod. Hindu Law 379 If no agnate can be found (and one may search back through any number of degrees), then the mother's brother's son or other cognates will take the inheritance in order of priority. |
2. A cognate word, term, or thing.
| 1865 Sat. Rev. 11 Feb. 181 Reckoning the words which we have put in italics as Latin derivatives, merely because they happen to have Latin cognates! |