In ancient Rome, there were special concepts and names for each type of legal action. These were the agnate and the cognate. This definition is still relevant for some legal norms and processes. In addition, like many other Latin terms, the agnate and the cognate received new meanings in modern European languages.
Initial values
Agnates and cognates in Roman law determined the degree of kinship, giving the right to inheritance. At the same time, paternal relatives were called agnates. But the cognate is just a consanguineous relative who does not have any rights to inherit. The strict legal definition was softened by various established traditions. For example, a maternal nephew (cognate) could be adopted, and thus had the right to take part in the division of the inheritance.
Concept transformation
Norma turned out to be so convenient that for a long time it survived both Roman law and the Empire itself. Already familiar to us concepts have adapted well in Europe and, after some transformation, formed the basis of European law. In medieval Germany, for example, men of consanguinity (brothers, father, son, etc.) were called agnates. And here kinship was taken into account only on the paternal side. Agnates were members of German families, had the right to patronage of the leaders of the clans. Kognat is a relative deprived of such a right.
Fairy-tale allegories
Scanty information about the norms and legal concepts of the Middle Ages is rather well reflected in the tales and legends of the European continent. For example, in the well-known story about a cat in boots, the eldest sons received solid property, and the younger only got a symbolic inheritance.
This happened because in medieval Europe there were many people and not enough land. Therefore, protection standards were adopted for agnates - blood relatives, to whom all property was subsequently transferred. Agnates were called only the eldest sons of the clan - direct heirs. At first, such a rule was applied only to the sons of noble families, and later it was spread everywhere. Kognat - blood relatives who were deprived of all rights to property.
Cognates in linguistics
A convenient concept was picked up by linguists and began to be used in linguistics. Kognat is a one-root word that has a common meaning in closely related languages. The semantic similarity of cognates usually varies from language to language, and there is practically no complete identity of meanings. Therefore, the cognates in linguistics are divided into partial and complete.
The study of such words is carried out by comparative linguistics. Sometimes there are false cognates - pitfalls for the translator. Such words have a similar sound, but have fundamentally different meanings.
Linguists also work with false cognates - so-called words of similar meaning and pronounced the same way. Meanwhile, they have different origins and cannot be considered cognates in the full sense of the word.