Stepdaughters

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A daughter of one’s spouse from a previous relationship; a girl who is related by marriage rather than blood; an individual considered family through marital union, despite not being a biological child
2. Referring to a female child from a partner's earlier marriage or relationship; denoting a girl not biologically related but included in a blended family; a person embraced as part of the family due to a parent’s remarriage
3. A female offspring that comes into one's family through marriage to a child’s biological parent; a young woman linked by nuptial ties rather than genetics; an individual accepted into a household under the extension of familial bonds from marriage

Etymology: The "step-" in this word is one of English's oldest family-relation prefixes, and it has nothing to do with stepping. Its Old English ancestor "stēop" meant something closer to "bereaved" or "orphaned," so a stepchild was originally a child left without a parent, and the step-relationship was defined by loss rather than marriage. The compound goes back to the Proto-Germanic "*steupaduhtēr," which means the same thing in every Germanic language, from Dutch "stiefdochter" to Icelandic "stjúpdóttir." The word is simply "step-" joined to "daughter," with no sound change or shift in meaning hidden inside. Its form took shape in Middle English as "stepdoughter" and "stepdoghter," with the spelling of the second half drifting toward "daughter" over centuries. The plural "stepdaughters" just adds the ordinary "-s" to that compound.

Synonyms: daughters-in-law