Outlaw In-law

Origins
The “in-law” word is rather cold, especially if the individual is a close relation. In Scottish English, in-laws were generally known as “good sister,” “good brother,” “good mother,” and so on.

The Glosbe, a Polish online dictionary, “working to provide the best online dictionary ever, covering all major languages,” displays definitive uses for guid, the third of which is “in-law.” Listed on the page are several instances: guid-brither, guid-dochter, and guid-faither for brother, daughter, and father-in-law (Glosbe, n.d.).

Why Good?
My intention is to impact contemporary English usage. Though it is common to introduce your sibling’s or spouse’s family as mother-in-law or brother-in-law, what about a nephew’s wife? A cousin’s husband?

While niece-in-law or cousin-in-law is technically accurate, it sounds wrong. Wouldn’t good niece or good cousin sound better? Based on 14th, 16th, and 18th century Scottish usage, as shown in very old documents along with passages from Sara Donati’s Wilderness and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, we can see that good fits any kind of extended relative, kindly and respectfully.

• “Iames steward, that ledar was Eftir his gud brother disses” (The Bruce, 1375).
• “That his gud systyr the Quenys grace be nocht…” (Douglas Book, 1515).
• "… After a longer pause Jennet got up and told the story of how she left her home in Scotland to come and claim Luke as her husband
  ‘Fine and good,’ said her good-sister Hannah. ‘But what of the fairy tree?’” (Donati Endless Forest 244).
• “Even his whiskers are copper bright. In the polite conversation of strangers he tells her he is come to Paradise to visit his sister and good brother…” (Donati Endless Forest 217).
• “My good brother saw that my patience was nearing its end…” (Donati Sweet Blue 21).
• “’Your good sister,’ Jenny said firmly. She raised one black eyebrow. ‘If ye’ll have me still?’ Her look was straight and open, and the urge to laugh changed abruptly into an equally strong urge to burst into tears” (Gabaldon Own Heart’s Blood 33).

Works Cited
Barbour, John. The Bruce. Edited by Walter W. Skeat, Early English Text Society, 1870.
The Douglas Book, vol. IV: Correspondence, ed. Sir William Fraser. Edinburgh: T. & A. Constable, 1885.
Donati, Sara. The Endless Forest: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2011.
Donati, Sara. The Sweet Blue Distance. Berkley, 2024.
Gabaldon, Diana. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood. Delacorte Press, 2014.
“Guid brither.” Glosbe, https://glosbe.com/sco/en/guid. Accessed 3 July 2025.

Our project blends historical, cultural, and artistic images in the public domain or for free use from the following sources and creators:

Celtic Knot Bullet Icons — from PublicDomainVectors.org
Cornell Digital Archives Illustrations — e.g., Notes on the District of Menteith (1907), public domain.
Ornate Cross Clipart — by Hein van Wyk, via Cloversites Media Library
Traditional Celtic Knot Designs — from FreeSVG.org