Learn English – Paucity of words for relationships

I extracted the following from the online Webster Dictionary. It's interesting to see how all these words were transformed from Latin/Greek/Old High German/Middle English to the current English words.

Note: I know that this does not exactly answer your question, since you actually want to know if the words derived from words with other meanings. But I think that having the full list of originating languages here may be useful as other answers to your question may refer to it.

DAUGHTER

Middle English, doughter, from Old English dohtor; akin to Old High German tohter daughter, Greek thygatēr

First Known Use: before 12th century

SON

Middle English sone, from Old English sunu; akin to Old High German sun son, Greek hyios

First Known Use: before 12th century

AUNT

Middle English, from Old French ante, from Latin amita; akin to Old High German amma mother, nurse, Greek amma nurse

First Known Use: 14th century

UNCLE

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin avunculus mother's brother; akin to Old English ēam uncle, Welsh ewythr, Latin avus grandfather

First Known Use: 14th century

MOTHER

Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor; akin to Old High German muoter mother, Latin mater, Greek mētēr, Sanskrit mātṛ

First Known Use: before 12th century

FATHER

Middle English fader, from Old English fæder; akin to Old High German fater father, Latin pater, Greek patēr

First Known Use: before 12th century

COUSIN

Middle English cosin, from Anglo-French cusin, cosin, from Latin consobrinus, from com- + sobrinus second cousin, from soror sister — more at sister

First Known Use: 13th century

NEPHEW

Middle English nevew, from Anglo-French nevou, neveu, from Latin nepot-, nepos grandson, nephew; akin to Old English nefa grandson, nephew, Sanskrit napāt grandson

First Known Use: 14th century

NIECE

Middle English nece granddaughter, niece, from Anglo-French nece, niece, from Late Latin neptia, from Latin neptis; akin to Latin nepot-, nepos grandson, nephew

First Known Use: 14th century

Reference:

http://www.merriam-webster.com

This was on my list of questions to ask at this site! I don't have an answer but I do have some thoughts and further questions.

Most of these words seem to be variants. If you look at the list here at Words Shakespeare invented, most of these are variations. For example amazement is a variant of amaze. It’s a little more credible to vary an existing word than introduce a completely new one. Also could it be true that there was a lot more improvisation in the language generally at the time due to the lack of a literate populace and established written standards and dictionaries.

First to use in print isn't the same as invent If this was the dawn of English language publishing then presumably Shakespeare was just in the right place at the right time for be the first to print with many English Words.

What of Shakespeare's Rivals? If Shakespeare was in the right place at the right time then so surely were Marlowe and Jonson - I haven't seen similar claims for them.

Does every language have its Shakespeare? I've heard Luther being called the father of German. Would Homer be the same for Ancent Greek? What about other languages?