niece
[ nees ]
/ nis /
noun
a daughter of a person's brother or sister.
a daughter of a person's spouse's brother or sister.
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RELATED WORDS
father, sibling, mother, cousin, folk, uncle, aunt, girl, wife, daughter, she, agnate, cognate, connection, blood, folks, relation, grandparents, sister-in-law, stepbrother
Nearby words
- nidus avis,
- nidwalden,
- niebuhr,
- niebuhr, barthold georg,
- niebuhr, reinhold,
- niederrhein,
- niedersachsen,
- niederösterreich,
- niello,
- nielsen
Origin of niece
1250–1300; Middle English nece < Old French < Vulgar Latin *neptia, for Latin neptis granddaughter; replacing Middle English nifte, Old English nift niece (cognate with Old Frisian, Old High German nift, Dutch nicht, Old Norse nipt) < Germanic; akin to Lithuanian neptė̃, Sanskrit naptī; cf. nephew
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for niece
niece
/ (niːs) /
noun
a daughter of one's sister or brother
Word Origin for niece
C13: from Old French niece granddaughter, ultimately from Latin neptis granddaughter
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
niece
c.1300, from Old French niece "niece, granddaughter" (12c., Modern French nièce), earlier niepce, from Latin neptia (also source of Portuguese neta, Spanish nieta), from neptis "granddaughter," in Late Latin "niece," fem. of nepos "grandson, nephew" (see nephew). Replaced Old English nift, from Proto-Germanic *neftiz, from the same PIE root (Old English also used broðordohter and nefene).
Until c.1600, it also commonly meant "a granddaughter" or any remote female descendant. Cf. cognate Spanish nieta, Old Lithuanian nepte, Sanskrit naptih "granddaughter;" Czech net, Old Irish necht, Welsh nith, German Nichte "niece."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper