sibship
(ˈsɪbʃɪp)
[f. sib n.2 + -ship.]
1. Anthrop. The state of belonging to a sib, or to the same sib (sib a. and n.2 3 c).
| 1908 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Aci. 1907 654 Sib and sibship, the old word sib may be used for the relationship set up by membership of the sept. 1924 W. H. R. Rivers Soc. Organ. ii. 22 All the people of a village or district..believe themselves to be related to one another, and thus form a characteristic example of sibship. 1950 [see sib a. and n.2 3 a]. |
2. Biol. and Med. A group comprising all the individuals born to a particular pair of parents.
| 1919 Genetics IV. 489 Fraternal resemblance is usually not far from ·54, so that 46 percent of the variance of the population occurs within the sibship. 1925 Jrnl. Genetics XV. 259 An acre of F2 plants and an acre of F3 sibships. 1939 Nature 18 Mar. 484/2 The fall in the birth-rate may be due to diminution in family size... Thus the average sibship in Great Britain now is said to be half of what it was fifty years ago. 1949 C. Stern Princ. Human Genetics 389 In sibships of 10, chance alone will give rise, on the average, to 1 sibship in 1024 of all boys. 1958 Immunology I. 49 Eight goldfish from the same sibship as before. 1978 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 14 Jan. 72/1 There is a high incidence of spontaneous abortion in sibships in which a case of anencephaly or spina bifida has occurred. |