DOES POLISH LACK A WORD FOR STEPSISTER & STEPBROTHER?

♂

Dec 20, 08, 08:53 #1

Ojczym = stepfather
macocha = stepmother
pasierb = stepson
pasierbica = stepdaughter
But what is the term a child uses to describe his stepbother or stepsister in Polish?
With a brat przyrodni (half-brother) and siostra przyrodnia (half-sister) you share one parent, but what about the stepbrother/sister, both of whose natrural parents are unrelated to you? This is becoming increasingly common in today's mucked-up families comprising second and third marriages/liaisons with unrelated kids entering households, but there is no name for it as far as I know.

PiorunThreads: - Posts: 741 Joined: Nov 11, 07 ♂	Dec 20, 08, 10:16 #2
How about _ (brat/siostra - przybrany/a) - foster brother/sister

Polonius3Threads: 1,005 Posts: 4,833 Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂	Dec 20, 08, 11:05 #3
Is that the official term for it? The term przybrany and (jocosely) przyszywany is widely used, but would everyone know this is a stepbrother, the son of a woman or man my biological oarent has married? My impression is that it is more general. Someone taken in (adopted officially or not) is called a przybrany syn, corka, etc.

mafketisThreads: 17 Posts: 1,880 Joined: Mar 31, 08 ♂	Dec 20, 08, 13:18 #4
Polonius3: This is becoming increasingly common in today's mucked-up families I'm sure that the people in the families in question appreciate your kind remarks. It might not be the same traditionally but przybrany/a seems to be the expression used in translating from English so the semantics behind the word are probably changing in light of that.

KrzysztofThreads: 2 Posts: 1,146 Joined: Jul 26, 07 ♂	Edited by: Krzysztof Dec 20, 08, 18:01 #5
If two divorced people marry each other, but they don't adopt the child(ren) of the new wife/husband, then the children are not related at all, they are just underage strangers leaving under the same roof :( So I guess the word "przybrany" could be used here, because it's not a legal term (which would be "przysposbiony/adoptowany" for a child).

♂

Dec 21, 08, 03:31 #6

Przybranie (adopting, taking under one's roof) refers to stepparents. But stepbrother and stepsister has to do not with adoption or any legality but the relationship of unrelated chidren living under one roof to one another. I beleive there really is no one word in Polish conveying the full meaning of stepbrother/stepsister. Moreover, stepbrother/sister contains an emotive element of alienness, distance or even estrangement ,whereas przybrany ranges from neutral to positive.

♂

Dec 21, 08, 08:15 #7

Polonius3:

Polonius3

I don't agree.
Przybrany refers to something "taken as your own", "assumed", it's not a legal term, it's not restricted to parent-child relation, it can be also used in other contexts, like "przybrane imię" (about a pseudonim/nickname).

As for

"an emotive element of alienness"

- it's too subjective to decide. In my opinion a sentence like "My stepmother is leaving for holiday" conveys absolutely no information about your emotional stance towards your stepmother.

piaskowyThreads: - Posts: 15 Joined: Oct 25, 09 ♂	Feb 7, 10, 11:13 #8
brat przyrodni, siostra przyrodnia

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