COUSIN, a term of relation between the children of brothers and sisters, who in the first generation are called cousins-german, in the second generation, second cousins, &c. If sprung from the relations of the father's side, they are denominated paternal cousins; if on the mother's, maternal.
The word is ordinarily derived from consanguineus; though Menage brings it from congenius, or congenus, q. d. ex eodem genere.
In the primitive times, it was allowed cousins-german to marry, to prevent their making alliances in heathen families: but Theodosius the Great prohibited it under pain of death; on pretence that they
were, in some sort, brothers and sisters with regard to each other.