Stepsons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A child of one's partner from a previous relationship who is not biologically related to one's self
2. A boy or young man who is legally or socially the son of one's spouse but not one's own child
3. An individual who is regarded as a son through marriage rather than blood relation

Etymology: "Stepsons" is the plural of "stepson," and the plural simply follows the singular. The singular is a compound of "step," which in Old English "stēop" meant "bereaved" or "orphaned," with "son." The "step" element in family terms is the same root that gave us the sense of a parent's new spouse, so a stepson is literally a bereaved or orphaned son, a son whose place has been taken by someone new. The compound was already in use in Old English as "stēopsunu," and its Germanic relatives are equally old: Dutch "stiefzoon," German "Stiefsohn," and Swedish "styvson" all follow the same pattern, showing that the idea of a son gained through a parent's remarriage was built into the family vocabulary of many Germanic languages long before English recorded it.

Synonyms: stepchildren