226 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



married woman. In Low Latin nurus is used for 

 vvpcfrios, sponsus, or bridegroom, and nura for daughter- 

 in-law ; this use of nurus has almost certainly a basis in 

 an older sense of the word. The Sanskrit is snushd, 

 Czech snacha, A.S. snora, O.H.G-. snur (also, be it noted, 

 glossed as noverca, stepmother), and Modern German 

 schnur. According to Schade, the Albanians use vovaeja 

 for daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, and any newly married 

 woman, while vova-epia is the period of a woman's life 

 between marriage and the first confinement (? pregnancy). 

 Various origins of the word have been suggested, all more 

 or less unsatisfactory. Kuhn would have us believe that 

 snushd = sam-vasd, the cohabitant, or one dwelling with 

 her parents-in-law ; this result assumes the exogamy, 

 and also the existence of patriarchal custom, among the 

 primitive Aryans. According to Fick, snusd perhaps 

 stands for sunusa, the ' sonness ' or female of the son ; 

 and, as suggestive of this source, Old Slav synocha, 

 Polish synowa (from syn, son), and Swabian sohnerin 

 have been cited. It is difficult to see how the wide- 

 spread use of the word for any young married woman 

 could then have easily arisen, for it may be taken as a 

 universal rule, which we have seen exemplified in many 

 instances, that words of kinship and sex begin with a 

 very wide and general sense and are afterwards special- 

 ised. Lastly, we have Weber's deduction from an Aryan 

 root sun, meaning to flow. Thus Fick has snevd, snau, 

 to drip, wet, flow, connected possibly with which is 

 the Gothic snivan. This root is certainly in accord- 

 ance with the primitive weight of snur, as merely the 

 young woman or bride. It might account also for the 



