COLLATERAL, in genealogy, those relations which proceed from the same stock, but not in the same line of ascendants or descendants, but being, as it were, aside of each other. Thus, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and consins, are collateral, or in the same collateral line: those in a higher degree, and nearer the common root, represent a kind of paternity with regard to those more remote. See CONSANQUINITY.