Forms: see KINSMAN. [f. as kinsman + WOMAN.] A woman of one’s own kin; a female relative. (Now only literary.)
c. 1400. Maundev., xxviii. (1839), 288. Hire othere kynneswommen [Roxb. sibbe wymmen].
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xi. 15. My dere kyns Woman.
1586. Q. Eliz., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 23. Yow have not in the World a more lovinge kinswoman … then my self.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 88. Autonoe, a Kinswoman of the Tyrant’s.
1741–70. Eliz. Carter, Lett. (1808), 353. I wish,… in the next edition Mr. Richardson would leave out the grievous old-fashioned word kinswoman.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xviii. IV. 168. He tried to restore harmony between his kinswomen.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. vii. 54. The murdered prince had married a kinswoman of the Earl.
