To my ears, the word “relationship” has long sounded like psycho-babble invented circa 1950. It’s hard to imagine anyone in the 19th-century discussing their “relationships.”
Tonight I decided to finally investigate my hypothesis. I was almost dead on: According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “relationship” first appeared in 1744, but was not applied “specifically of romantic or sexual relationships” until 1944. I’m still unclear on when the term expanded to encompass all enduring social ties – it feels like it happened in the 70s, but I’m not quite old enough to remember.
The weird thing is that I can’t think of any old-fashioned synonym. Can traditional societies get by with “kinsman,” “friend,” “ally,” and the like without needing any broader category? Or what?
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From relation + -ship.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈleɪ.ʃən.ʃɪp/, [ɹɪˈleɪ.ʃn̩.ʃɪp]
- (US) IPA(key): /ɹɪˈleɪ.ʃənˌʃɪp/, [ɹɪˈleɪ.ʃn̩ˌʃɪp]
- Hyphenation: re‧la‧tion‧ship
Noun[edit]
relationship (plural relationships)
- Connection or association; the condition of being related.
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2011 February 1, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction[1], Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, pages 102-103:
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But some discussion of the complex relationship between “allohistory” and sf is appropriate here, as the genres overlap in certain ways. Classical allohistory— such as Trevelyan’s «What if Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo?» and Churchill’s «If Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg» —is a rigorously consistent thought-experiment in historical causality.
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- (mathematics) The links between the x-values and y-values of ordered pairs of numbers especially coordinates.
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2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
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Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.
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- Kinship; being related by blood or marriage.
- A romantic or sexual involvement.
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They have been in a relationship for ten years, but have never married.
- 1975 March 17, Marian Christy, «Suzy Chaffee, A Liberated Beauty», The Lebanon Daily News
- I’m not advocating sexual promiscuity but I think it’s possible for a woman to have many kinds of sexual relationships with many men and that shouldn’t affect the status of the marriage.
- 2000, April 8, Dorthea Straus, «Oates on Marilyn: Men, drugs, tragedy», The Baltimore Sun
- Her most satisfying sexual relationship seemed to be a threesome with Charles Chaplin Jr. and Eddy Robinson Jr., the spurned sons of famous film fathers.
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- A way in which two or more people behave and are involved with each other
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I have a good working relationship with my boss.
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2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
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“I Love Lisa” opens with one of my favorite underappreciated running jokes from The Simpsons: the passive-aggressive, quietly contentious relationship of radio jocks Bill and Marty, whose mindless happy talk regularly gives way to charged exchanges that betray the simmering resentment and disappointment perpetually lingering just under the surface of their relationship.
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- (music) The level or degree of affinity between keys, chords and tones.
Hyponyms[edit]
- joking relationship
Derived terms[edit]
- entity-relationship diagram
- entity-relationship model
- relationship anarchy
- relationshipless
- relationshiply
- relationshippy
- relationshopping
Translations[edit]
connection or association
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Arabic: عَلَاقَة f (ʕalāqa)
- Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
- Armenian: հարաբերություն (hy) (haraberutʿyun), փոխհարաբերություն (hy) (pʿoxharaberutʿyun)
- Asturian: rellación (ast) f
- Azerbaijani: münasibət (az)
- Belarusian: адно́сіны f pl (adnósiny)
- Breton: darempred (br) m
- Bulgarian: връ́зка (bg) f (vrǎ́zka), отноше́ние (bg) n (otnošénie)
- Burmese: အဆက်အသွယ် (my) (a.hcak-a.swai)
- Catalan: relació (ca) f
- Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 關係／关系 (zh) (guānxì)
- Czech: vztah (cs) m
- Danish: forhold n
- Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
- Dutch: verwantschap (nl) n
- Esperanto: rilato
- Finnish: suhde (fi), yhteys (fi)
- French: rapport (fr) m
- Galician: relación (gl) f
- Georgian: ურთიერთობა (urtiertoba)
- German: Beziehung (de) f, Verwandtschaft (de) f
- Greek: σχέση (el) f (schési)
- Gujarati: સંબંધ (sambandh)
- Hebrew: מערכת יחסים
- Hindi: रिश्ता (hi) m (riśtā), संबंध (hi) m (sambandh)
- Hungarian: kapcsolat (hu), viszony (hu)
- Ido: relato (io)
- Indonesian: relasi (id), hubungan (id)
- Interlingua: relation, connexion
- Irish: baint f, comhchaidreamh m, gaolmhaireacht f
- Italian: rapporto (it) m, relazione (it)
- Japanese: 関係 (ja) (かんけい, kankei)
- Kazakh: қарым-қатынас (qarym-qatynas), қарым-қатыс (qarym-qatys)
- Khmer: ការទាក់ទង (kaa teak tɔɔng), ការទាក់ទងគ្នា (kaa teak tɔɔng knie)
- Korean: 관계(關係) (ko) (gwan’gye)
- Ladino: alishik m, relasyón f
- Latin: necessitudo f
- Macedonian: врска f (vrska), однос m (odnos)
- Malay: hubungan (ms)
- Malayalam: ബന്ധം (ml) (bandhaṃ)
- Marathi: नाते (nāte)
- Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
- Nepali: सम्बन्ध (ne) (sambandha)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: forhold (no) n
- Nynorsk: tilhøve n, samband n
- Occitan: relacion (oc) f
- Oriya: please add this translation if you can
- Pashto: please add this translation if you can
- Persian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: związek (pl) m, powiązanie (pl) f, relacja (pl) f, stosunek (pl) m
- Portuguese: relacionamento (pt) m, relação (pt) f
- Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
- Rajasthani: please add this translation if you can
- Romanian: relație (ro) f, legătură (ro) f, raport (ro) n,, asociere (ro)
- Russian: отноше́ние (ru) n (otnošénije), взаимоотношение (ru) n (vzaimootnošenije), взаимосвя́зь (ru) f (vzaimosvjázʹ), каса́тельство (ru) n (kasátelʹstvo), связь (ru) f (svjazʹ)
- Scottish Gaelic: dàimh m or f
- Slovak: vzťah (sk) m
- Spanish: relación (es) f
- Swahili: uhusiano (sw), husiano
- Swedish: relation (sv) c, förhållande (sv) n
- Tagalog: kaugnayan, relasyon
- Tamil: please add this translation if you can
- Telugu: సంబంధము (te) (sambandhamu)
- Thai: สัมพันธไมตรี (sǎm-pan-tá-mai-dtrii)
- Turkish: ilişki (tr), bağlantı (tr)
- Turkmen: please add this translation if you can
- Ukrainian: відно́сини f pl (vidnósyny), взаємовідно́сини f pl (vzajemovidnósyny)
- Urdu: رِشْتِہ داری f (riśtih dārī), رِشْتَہ m (riśtah) (mainly between couples)
- Uzbek: please add this translation if you can
- Vietnamese: liên hệ (vi) (聯繫) (informal), quan hệ (vi) (關係) (formal)
- Volapük: please add this translation if you can
- Walloon: please add this translation if you can
the connection between ordered pairs of numbers in mathematics
- Bulgarian: отноше́ние (bg) n (otnošénie)
- Maori: pānga
kinship
- Arabic: صِلَة f (ṣila), عَلَاقَة f (ʕalāqa)
- Azerbaijani: qohumluq (az), əqrabalıq
- Belarusian: ро́днасць f (ródnascʹ), ро́днасьць f (ródnasʹcʹ), свая́цтва n (svajáctva)
- Bulgarian: ро́дство (bg) n (ródstvo), родни́нство n (rodnínstvo)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 親屬關係／亲属关系 (qīnshǔ guānxì), 血緣／血缘 (zh) (xuèyuán), 親屬／亲属 (zh) (qīnshǔ)
- Czech: příbuznost f, příbuzenství n
- Danish: slægtskab n
- Esperanto: parenceco
- Finnish: sukulaisuus (fi), sukulaisuussuhde (fi)
- French: relation (fr) f
- Galician: parentesco (gl) m
- Georgian: ნათესაობა (natesaoba)
- German: Verwandtschaft (de) f
- Gothic: 𐍃𐌹𐌱𐌾𐌰 f (sibja)
- Greek: συγγένεια (el) (syngéneia)
- Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
- Hindi: रिश्ता (hi) m (riśtā)
- Hungarian: rokonság (hu)
- Ido: parenteso (io)
- Irish: gaol m, gaolmhaireacht f
- Italian: parentela (it) f
- Japanese: 血族関係 (けつぞくかんけい, ketsuzoku kankei), 血縁 (ja) (けつえん, ketsuen, けちえん, kechien), 親族 (ja) (しんぞく, shinzoku)
- Korean: 친족 관계(親族關係) (chinjok gwan’gye), 혈연(血緣) (ko) (hyeoryeon), 친족(親族) (ko) (chinjok)
- Khmer: ញាតិភាព (ñiet pʰiep), ញាតិវង្ស (ñiet vɔǝng)
- Latin: coniūnctiō (la) f
- Macedonian: сродство n (srodstvo)
- Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
- Nepali: नाता (nātā)
- Plautdietsch: Veheltniss n
- Polish: pokrewieństwo (pl) n
- Portuguese: parentesco (pt) m
- Romanian: rudenie (ro) f, înrudire (ro) f
- Russian: родство́ (ru) n (rodstvó)
- Scottish Gaelic: dàimh m or f, càirdeas m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: сро̀дство n
- Roman: sròdstvo (sh) n
- Slovak: príbuzenstvo n
- Slovene: sorodstvo n
- Swedish: släktskap (sv) n
- Telugu: బంధుత్వము (te) (bandhutvamu)
- Turkish: akrabalık (tr), hısımlık (tr), karabet (tr), kohumluk (tr)
- Ukrainian: спорі́днення n (sporídnennja), спорі́дненість f (sporídnenistʹ)
romantic or sexual involvement
- Armenian: հարաբերություններ (hy) pl (haraberutʿyunner)
- Bulgarian: връ́зка (bg) f (vrǎ́zka)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: (romantic relationship) 情愛關係／情爱关系 (qíng’ài guānxi), (sexual relationship) 性關係／性关系 (zh) (xìngguānxi)
- Czech: vztah (cs)
- Danish: forhold n
- Dutch: relatie (nl) f, verhouding (nl) f
- Esperanto: amrilato
- Faroese: samband (fo) n
- Finnish: suhde (fi)
- French: relation (fr) f
- Georgian: ურთიერთობა (urtiertoba)
- German: Beziehung (de) f, Verhältnis (de) n
- Greek: σχέση (el) (schési)
- Hungarian: kapcsolat (hu), párkapcsolat (hu), viszony (hu)
- Icelandic: samband (is) n
- Irish: baint f
- Italian: storia (it), legame (it), relazione (it)
- Macedonian: врска f (vrska)
- Marathi: संबंध (sambandha)
- Norwegian: forhold (no)
- Polish: stosunek (pl) m
- Portuguese: relacionamento (pt), relação (pt) f
- Romanian: relație (ro) n, legătură (ro) f
- Russian: рома́н (ru) m (román), интри́га (ru) f (intríga), любо́вные отноше́ния n pl (ljubóvnyje otnošénija)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Roman: veza (sh) f
- Spanish: relación (es) f, noviazgo (es)
- Swedish: förhållande (sv) n, relation (sv) c
- Tagalog: relasyon
- Telugu: సంబంధము (te) (sambandhamu)
- Turkish: ilişki (tr)
- Ukrainian: відно́сини f pl (vidnósyny)
See also[edit]
- relate
- relation
- relative
English word relationship comes from English -ship, English relation
Detailed word origin of relationship
| Dictionary entry | Language | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| -ship | English (eng) | Appended to a noun to form a new noun denoting a property or state of being, time spent in a role, or a specialised union. |
| relation | English (eng) | (category theory) A subobject of a product of objects.. (databases) A set of ordered tuples retrievable by a relational database; a table.. (mathematics) A statement of equality of two products of generators, used in the presentation of a group.. (set theory) A set of ordered tuples.. (set theory) Specifically, a set of ordered pairs.. (usually collocated: sexual relation) The act of […] |
| relationship | English (eng) | (mathematics) The links between the x-values and y-values of ordered pairs of numbers especially coordinates.. (music) The level or degree of affinity between keys, chords and tones.. A romantic or sexual involvement.. A way in which two or more people behave and are involved with each other. Connection or association; the condition of being related.. Kinship; being related by blood or marriage. |
Words with the same origin as relationship
- Top Definitions
- Synonyms
- Quiz
- Related Content
- Examples
- British
This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.
[ ri-ley-shuhn-ship ]
/ rɪˈleɪ ʃənˌʃɪp /
This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.
noun
a connection, association, or involvement.
connection between persons by blood or marriage.
an emotional or other connection between people: the relationship between teachers and students.
a sexual involvement; affair.
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Origin of relationship
First recorded in 1735–45; relation + -ship
synonym study for relationship
2. Relationship, kinship refer to connection with others by blood or by marriage. Relationship can be applied to connection either by birth or by marriage: relationship to a ruling family. Kinship generally denotes common descent and implies a more intimate connection than relationship: the ties and obligations of kinship.
OTHER WORDS FROM relationship
pre·re·la·tion·ship, noun
Words nearby relationship
related, relation, relational, relational database, relations, relationship, relationship marketing, relative, relative aperture, relative atomic mass, relative bearing
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Words related to relationship
accord, affair, communication, contact, exchange, liaison, link, marriage, rapport, relation, tie, affiliation, affinity, alliance, analogy, appositeness, association, bond, conjunction, consanguinity
How to use relationship in a sentence
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When you talk about the difference between an events business and a community business, it’s mainly one of a lasting relationship.
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Unless you decide that the value here is never in what they say, they do, but in whatever else is valuable about the relationship.
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It taught me to never “network,” but to build actual authentic relationships.
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Erdogan inherited a strong relationship with Israel when he swept to national power almost 20 years ago.
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So, I asked Thom Mayer whether his relationship with Allen Sills had been adversarial.
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Will the Pam/Krieger relationship be an ongoing theme this season?
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In a romantic relationship, facing humiliation or awkwardness is a strong possibility.
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A 2012 study found that fully 76% of Duke students want to be in a committed romantic relationship.
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That explanation is believable…but increasingly less so when you hear Jay talk about the nature of his relationship with Adnan.
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Most of us have an unhealthy relationship with anger, writes author and psychologist Andrea Brandt.
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Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, on account of his near relationship to the house of York, beheaded.
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You can easily see that in this relationship he must have had a large influence both over the king and over the people.
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I shall always have a sense of relationship with you quite different from anything I have ever known.
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As far as you know there isn’t a human being living who has any claim to your services by reason of blood relationship.
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The commercial notion is not perhaps quite so distinct here, but the underlying legal relationship is sufficiently marked.
British Dictionary definitions for relationship
noun
the state of being connected or related
association by blood or marriage; kinship
the mutual dealings, connections, or feelings that exist between two parties, countries, people, etca business relationship
an emotional or sexual affair or liaison
Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Defenition of the word relationship
- Connection or relationship between two or more elements.
- state of relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption
- a state of connectedness between people (especially an emotional connection); «he didn’t want his wife to know of the relationship»
- a state involving mutual dealings between people or parties or countries
- (`relationship’ is often used where `relation’ would serve (as in «the relationship between inflation and unemployment»)) preferred usage of `relationship’ is for human relations or states of relatedness; «the relationship between mothers and children»
- a relation between people; (`relationship» is often used where `relation» would serve, as in `the relationship between inflation and unemployment», but the preferred usage of `relationship» is for human relations or states of relatedness); «the relati
- a state of connectedness between people (especially an emotional connection); «he didn»t want his wife to know of the relationship»
- a relation between people; (`relationship’ is often used where `relation’ would serve, as in `the relationship between inflation and unemployment’, but the preferred usage of `relationship’ is for human relations or states of relatedness)
- (anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption
- a state of connectedness between people (especially an emotional connection)
Synonyms for the word relationship
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- afair
- affiliation
- association
- bond
- connection
- correlation
- family relationship
- human relationship
- interrelation
- kinship
- liaison
- link
- rapport
Similar words in the relationship
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- relationship
- relationship’s
Hyponyms for the word relationship
-
- account
- acquaintance
- acquaintanceship
- affiliation
- affinity
- anaclisis
- assimilation
- association
- birth
- blood kinship
- brotherhood
- business relationship
- cognation
- consanguinity
- descent
- fatherhood
- filiation
- friendly relationship
- friendship
- kinship by marriage
- line of descent
- lineage
- love affair
- marital bed
- marital relationship
- maternity
- membership
- motherhood
- parentage
- partnership
- paternity
- personal relation
- personal relationship
- phylogenetic relation
- romance
- sexual relationship
- sisterhood
- sistership
- subjection
- subjugation
- tie
- tie-up
Hypernyms for the word relationship
-
- relation
- state
See other words
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- What is poster
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- The lexical meaning regular
- The dictionary meaning of the word register
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- Literal and figurative meaning of the word posistor
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- Synonym for the word relaxer
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- Translation of the word in other languages relict