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How would you introduce a "family" member, without using outdated terms (ie kith or kin) or words that i will have to explain the definition every time i use it. ie. this is my _________, susan.

I've found a few i like, but i cannot find a word for a member of that group in relation to myself. "This is my tribe, susan" alludes to that person being the only other tribe member and it doesnt roll of the tongue very well.

Some of these words are: tribe, people, village. Tribesperson, villager and person do not really fit for a word in relation to myself.

Dictionary/thesaurus searches: Shmoop,Thesaurus.com, synonyms.com, macmillion dictionary, urban thesaurus. I have bean searching off and on for a year now and nothing seems to fit right.

I am open to compound words or phrases, however something like "This is a member of my tribe/fellow "family" (I dislike that "word")member/fellow villager" is too formal. I am also open to another introduction sentence that can incorporate the above.

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I think the word you are looking for may be relative.

A relative is one who is connected to us by blood or marriage.

Here is a link which says that a member of a family is called a relative: Cambridge Dictionary

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The answer is in the question :

This is John : he's family.

The Ngram shows rising acceptance of the phrase from the 1960s.

NGram

b. A group of people consisting of one set of parents and their children, whether living together or not. In wider sense: any group of people connected by blood, marriage, adoption, etc. Also: a pair of animals and their young.

Oxford English Dictionary

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  • This is certainly used by some people, but is it specific to a certain variety of English (I suspect it's more or less American), or might it be considered colloquial?
    – Stuart F
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 11:24
  • @StuartF If you check the NGram it is more used in AmE and less so than BrE. About 3:1. Overall, the expression is used half as much as the corresponding 'relative' expression.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 12:51
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    Even though I'm a little bit confused by the question and the way it's put, for some reason I have the impression that this is precisely what the OP was looking for.
    – m.a.a.
    Commented Nov 15, 2022 at 19:53

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