I went back and looked at a website or two and found this:
The type of cousin-ness can be important in terms of heredity and consanguinity if first cousins marry.
I don't agree with this at all. If person A and person B are first cousins, they share one set of grandparents, whether the sibling parents are male or female. Consequently, the genetic contributions of the grandparents is going to be the same regardless of the "type of cousin-ness."
Unless there is something about genetics and eugenics (in the positive sense of the word of course) that has changed since I took a course in genetics back in the dark ages.
While this is taking a wonderful word thread and possibly diverting it to things non-word related, I guess it's OK because I am asking why the words exist at all.
If someone wants to take this discussion to private messages feel free to do so.
TEd
