COGNATE: 1: of the same or similar nature 2: related; especially: related by descent from the same ancestral language
The story of "congnate" is all about relatives. "Allude" and "prelude" are cognate words, sharing the Latin root ludere as an ancestor; the English "brother" and the German Bruder are two more examples, both related to the Greek phrater. Cognate languages, like French, Spanish, and Italian, descend from the same ancestral language. People related through a common ancestor are cognate, and groups of people, as tribes, can be cognate to one another. "Cognate" also describes things related in a more figurative way, as in "cognate developments," "cognate disciplines," or "cognate problems." "Cognate" itself comes from the Latin cognatus, which traces to the Latin nasci, meaning "to be born." Words cognate to "cognate" include "innate," "nascent," "native," and "renaissance."
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