Hi, me again! I've been rather busy so I've had little chance to post recently. I've just got engaged to a lovely lass and will soon be taking on two step-daughters, one 16, the other 22 and I was rather wondering why step-daughter , step-son, etc.? Now I could look it up but I'm sure you wonderful people will have an answer!

Well, some quick searching has led me to almost nothing. The German and Dutch words are Stiefsohn and stiefzoon, respectively, which gives us a bit of information.

Erik, Congratulations!

We have missed you, but glad to see you back.

I couldn't find much in the regular dictionaries, but I found this in the OED. Because it is so detailed, I thought it best to include the exact quote:

" OE. stéop- (earlier stéup-, Northumb. stéap-), corresponding to OFris. stiap-, stiep- (NFris. stjap-, sjap-, stîp-, WFris. stiep-), MLG. (irreg.) stêf- (mod. LG. staif-), (M)Du. (irreg.) stief-, OHG. stiuf- (MHG., mod.G. stief-), ON. stjúp-, (MSw. stiup-, stiuf-; mod.Sw. stiuf-, styf-; Da. stif-, stiv-, now superseded by sted-):OTeut. *steupo-; a Com. Teut. combining element (not recorded in Gothic), prefixed to terms of relationship (as son, father, brother) to form designations for the degrees of affinity resulting from the remarriage of a widowed parent. The primitive sense of the word is indicated by the use of OE. stéopbearn, -cild (STEPBAIRN, STEPCHILD) for ‘orphan’, and by the cognates, OE. ástíeped bereaved, OHG. stiufen (also ar-, bistiufen) to bereave. Etymologically, stepfather (stepmother) might be rendered ‘one who becomes a father (mother) to an orphan’, and stepson (stepdaughter) ‘an orphan who becomes a son (a daughter)’ by the marriage of the surviving parent. It is uncertain which of these two applications of the prefix is the original one; all branches of Teut. (exc. Gothic) have both, and also the extended use in stepbrother, stepsister. ON. had shortened forms, stjúpa stepmother, stjúp-r (mod.Icel. stjúpi) stepson. In Du. and LG., and in later Scandinavian, the p of OTeut. *steupo- is anomalously represented by f instead of p. This is prob. not due to HG. influence, but to assimilation to the following f in the compound stepfather (cf. the early ME. form steffadyr). A solitary OE. example of this anomaly occurs in the form stéfdohtor (quot. 912 s.v. STEPDAUGHTER). Occasional forms of the prefix in ME. are stip- (styp-), sti-, ste-, stappe-."

Hi Erik!

Welcome back. and congratulations!

Aha! Boy, that took some reading through! It was just one of those things I'm given to ponder, I notice that it generally refers to the re-marraige of a widow or widower, presumably becuse divorce was hardly common at one time.
Anyway I'll be becoming the EVIL step-father now! And just why is it that step-mothers or fathers are often villains in literature?

Congrats, Eric! I've recently taken on an adult stepchild myself.

I wondered the same thing that you did after reading Kalleh's citation from OED. Soooooo, Cinderella was an orphan! I suppose that explains a bit of the fairy tale, now doesn't it? I see a parallel to Edmund's being a bastard in King Lear. Orphans and bastards don't get no respect!

Erik, an even better question is, why is it that stepmothers, in the literature, are considered the villains...much more often than stepfathers?

The usual story is Mum snuffs it,Dad is attracted to evil Step-Mother to be, despite her unusual habits like boiling dogs alive, etc. falls madly in love and marries her. The child/ren see her for what she is- a Mother usurper and obviously evil person despite the opinions of starry eyed Dad, who when called to notice odd things like his wife nailing the cat to the front door just shrugs it off as one of her more endearing traits. Kids decide to fight evil Step-Mother and show Dad the error of his ways....and so on.
Rather mis-andryst as ol' Dad seems to be shown as a bit of a thick klutz.
I suppose the story plays on the basic fear of children of losing their mother and a replacement arriving.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Erik Johansen,

I find those stories fascinating, also, because of the complete ineptitude of the fathers. Usually the men in those old stories are the ones dashing in to save everyone else . . . so it's incongruous, really, to have these completely idiotic male figures bumbling around thinking everything is peachy just because they're getting laid again. Hmm . . .maybe, put that way, it makes perfect sense.

Oh yea, and Happy Father's Day!

quote:

Originally posted by Erik Johansen:
The usual story ...
I suppose the story plays on the basic fear of children of losing their mother and a replacement arriving.

Erik, have you been reading this?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140137270/sr=1-1/qid=...ncoding=UTF8&s=books