pariente

Pariente is a Spanish noun designating a person related to someone by blood or by marriage. It denotes a family member and is used in everyday speech as well as in legal, social, and genealogical contexts. The term covers a spectrum of relationships, from close relatives such as parents, siblings, and children to distant ones like cousins and in-laws.

In kinship terms, parientes are categorized by degree: lazos de consanguinidad (blood relatives) and lazos de afinidad (relatives by marriage). The phrase pariente por adopción exists in some contexts to describe an adopted relative, while pariente político is commonly used for in-laws.

Etymology: the word derives from Latin parens, parentis, meaning parent, and shares a root with parentesco, which denotes kinship or degree of relation. The concept appears across Romance languages with related forms such as parente in Italian or pariente in Portuguese.

Legal and social usage often refers to the grado de parentesco to determine rights, inheritance, or consent requirements. In many Spanish-speaking cultures, family ties are central, and references to parientes can imply obligations of support or involvement in family matters. The term is neutral and inclusive, capable of describing any relative, though speakers may specify degree or type, e.g., pariente cercano or pariente lejano.