Stepbairns

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Children of one's spouse from a previous relationship; offspring who are not biologically related to one but are connected through the marriage of a parent; individuals considered part of a blended family due to a parent's remarriage
2. Descendants of a spouse born in an earlier partnership; youngsters who do not share biological ties but become family through a spouse's existing children; members of a household formed by the union of a parent and their prior offspring
3. Young persons related to one by the marriage of a parent, rather than by blood; children belonging to a spouse from an earlier union; family members introduced to a new household arrangement through remarriage of a parent

Etymology: "Stepbairns" is the plural of "stepbairn", and the surprise lies in the first half of the word. "Step" once meant "orphan." Old English "stēop" carried the sense of bereavement, and "stēopbearn" literally meant an orphaned child. The "step" in the modern sense of a parent's new spouse came later, as the idea of a child who had lost a parent gradually shifted toward the child of a remarried parent. The second half is ordinary and ancient. "Bairn" is a Scots and northern English word for "child," descended from Old English "bearn," a relative of "bear" in the sense of "bring forth." The compound therefore means something close to "bereaved child" before it meant anything about a household reshuffled by remarriage. Cognates in Old High German, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Icelandic all share the same "stepchild" sense, showing that the compound was already well established across the Germanic languages.

Synonyms: stepchildren, stepkids, stepsons, stepdaughters, children