forty-second cousin

English

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Noun

forty-second cousin (plural forty-second cousins)

1. (humorous) Any very distant relative.
   • 1879, Mark Twain, The Great Revolution in Pitcairn:

     And also my step-sister, my niece, my fourth cousin, my thirty-third cousin, my forty-second cousin, my great-aunt, my grandmother, my widowed sister-in-law-and next week she will be my wife.

   • 1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 7”, in Emily of New Moon:

     "Is he a relation of ours, too, Cousin Jimmy?"
     "Forty-second cousin. Way back he had a cousin of Mary Shipley's for a great-something. […]

   • 2019, Sue Lawrence, Down to the Sea:

     So Jessie's my second cousin once removed or forty-second cousin or something. Anyway, we're kind-of related.