What's the English word for my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate?

Question

With sad regularity, it seems someone comes to the site looking for "the word" for some very specific relationship. Recently, it was What is the English word for husband of the daughter of my brother?. This morning there is Question Regarding Relationships, asking "how someone calls the person whom their husbands are biological brothers?"

Of course, English isn't very rich in such kinship terms, so the answer is usually "there isn't one; you have to spell it all out" or "it's the same as the name for these other relationships, and then you have to spell out the details". In fact, the first cited question was closed as a duplicate of Paucity of words for relationships.

I think it makes sense to have a single answer where we direct these kinds of questions. The problem is, while useful and interesting, the "duplicate" doesn't actually provide a usable answer for these questioners. The answers there answer the question asked, focusing on "why" and not the terms English speakers actually use.

So, my question: would it be appropriate to make a "model" question of this sort, with a model answer, which could be used as the duplicate for this kind of question?

I would make it a community-wiki question, and while I would also provide an answer I would expect that others could/should chime in to clarify language/correct errors/add helpful information. For example, there may be some obscure/obsolete English terms for specific relationships that would be of interest to "language enthusiasts" even if not all that usable in everyday life.

So, yea or nay? If yea, is there anything in particular I should take into consideration?

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Edited to add, for those who want an answer to the question in the title:

Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.

Lone Starr: What's that make us?

Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing!

From Spaceballs.

And to do the "math" (assuming traditional heterosexual norms of monogamous marriage and reproduction, i.e. all siblings have the same set of two biological parents, one male and one female, who are married to one another; and also assuming that unmodified "cousin" means first cousin):

1. Your father's brother is your uncle.

2. Your uncle's nephew can be either:

   1. You
   2. Your brother
   3. Your first cousin on your father's side (son of another sibling of your father and uncle, but not the son of your uncle—that would be your uncle's son, not his nephew)
   4. Your "cousin-in-law" (your uncle's wife's sibling's son)

3. There are, by my count, six possible relationships between you and your father's brother's nephew's cousin:

   1. You yourself (cousin of 2.3)
   2. Your brother (ditto)
   3. Your first paternal cousin (cousin of 2.1, 2.2, or 2.3—either your uncle's son or the son of another sibling of both your father and uncle)
   4. Your first maternal cousin (cousin of 2.1 or 2.2)
   5. Your "cousin-in-law" (cousin of 2.3, on the other side of the family; not a close blood relative, unless you've got a family tree that circles back on itself)
   6. Your paternal uncle's wife's sibling's spouse's son (cousin of 2.4; not a close blood relative of you or your cousin)

4. And of course, the cousin's former roommate could be just about anybody.

Answer 1

I like the idea of having a canonical (or what's the word for that) question, which can be made community wiki so that all of us can contribute to it. We already have such questions, and we close later questions as duplicates.

Go ahead, and make a community wiki question for whatever family relationship terms exist in English, and we can close others as duplicates.

Answer 2

It feels strange to create a new question specifically to be answered as a reference question especially when there exist questions with answers and duplicate questions already.

There already are some canonical high-quality 'kinship term' questions

• Paucity of words for relationships
• Rule for naming various relatives

Either of these (or both, or more) can be added to the list of FAQs and canonical posts.

As a side note to the content of these kinship term questions, there is a distinction within how to label a given relationship. There is whether there is single word for it and if not how best/most succinctly describe it.

As to the general situation, when a number of similar questions is asked about an area, one of these is already usually the better or most prior one. Why the need to create an arbitrary new question/answer?

As to community wiki, that is pretty irrelevant, one can always add a new answer or edit an existing one. Making them community wiki doesn't incentivize editing one way or the other.

Answer 3

The existing tag-wiki for kinship-terms would be the place I recommend to provide detailed, community-edited background information.

Only SE regulars may even notice the tags, so I can understand the objection that the tag alone is insufficiently visible. There is nothing to prevent us, however, from adding a reference link to it in the body of the existing accepted and/or highly voted answer itself.

This way, we avoid adulterating the Q&A format, particularly in a thread that new users will frequent, while also improving visibility of the tagging system. Because tag wikis have a higher reputation threshhold for unmoderated edits than community wiki posts, we also theoretically have better quality control while retaining the ability of community members to contribute.