Relating to affinity or the marriage connection between two families; characterized by kinship through marriage rather than blood.
From affinity + -al suffix. Affinity comes from Latin affīnităs 'relationship by marriage,' from affīnis 'bordering on' (ad- 'to' + fīnis 'boundary'). The term literally meant 'having a common boundary through marriage.'
Anthropologists and genealogists use 'affinal' to distinguish between blood relatives and relatives-by-marriage—for example, your spouse's parents are your affinal relatives, not consanguineous (blood) relatives, and this distinction matters in studying family structures across different cultures.
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