🧬 Blood relation 👩‍👧 Mother's lineage

cognation

9.9

A family line that follows the mother's side

noun
/kɒɡˈneɪʃən/

Specialized

: matrilinealidad

Her cognation is traced back to her grandmother.

Examples

Research into cognation has revealed complex patterns of maternal lineage.
The study of cognation helps us understand family ties and the influence of maternal ancestors.
Genealogists mapped the cognation of the royal family to confirm the queen's ancestry.
In some cultures, inheritance rights are determined by cognation rather than agnation.
Many cultures emphasize cognation over patrilineal descent.
She discovered that her cognation could be traced to influential women in her family tree.
Many societies give importance to cognation when determining family connections and inheritance.

Synonyms

matrilineage

vscognation

Specialized

9.9

A family line that comes from the mother's side

is the same descent idea expressed with a different label

matriline

vscognation

Specialized

9.2

A family line traced through the mother's side

focuses only on descent traced through the maternal side

matrilineality

vscognation

Specialized

9.9

A way of tracing family ties and inheritance through the mother's line

refers to the actual family line rather than the broader social system

Surface Forms

cognation singular

cognations plural

Morphology

cognation = cognate (semi-transparent) = cognate + ion

Derived by nominalizing 'cognate'; the specific sense of maternal-line descent is a technical anthropological nuance not obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Cognation comes from the same Latin idea of being 'born together' and is sometimes used for the family line on the mother's side, so it means descent by birth from your mother's relatives.