cousage

Cousage is a historical English noun describing the state or relationship of being cousins. It is primarily found in genealogical, legal, or antiquarian writings and is now rarely used in everyday English. The term is closely related to cousinage, cousinship, and cousinliness as terms that refer to kinship networks and the degree of consanguinity between people.

The word is formed from the noun cousin with the suffix -age, a common pattern for turning a noun into a state or condition.

In practice, cousage appeared in discussions of inheritance, marriage alliances, and other social obligations where kinship mattered. Medieval and early modern legal texts sometimes used cousage to define permissible degrees of relation for marriage or succession, as well as to describe the broader network of related families.

Today, cousage is largely considered archaic. Modern scholars more often use cousinage, cousinship, cousinship degree terms (first cousin, second cousin, etc.), or simply “cousin relationship” to convey the same idea.

See also consanguinity, cousin marriage, kinship.