Meanings
plural godsibs
- historicalanthropologyOne's sibling or kin via a godfamily tie: one's or one's child's godparent, or one's godchild's parent, or one's godparent's child.
[…] where 34 % of testators who mentioned godchildren were homonymous with those godsibs.
2006, David Postles, Joel Thomas Rosenthal, Studies on the Personal Name in Later Medieval England and Wales (Western Michigan Univ.)5 more examples
The fireplace also heated water for the godsibs to wash their hands with as they were instructed by the rubric to do before leaving the church.
1920, Courtenay Frederic William Dunn, The Natural History of the Child: A Book for All Sorts and Conditions of Men, Women, and Children, page 233[…] the Bumgardners' maid, with Preston and Penelope in tow, was exchanging defamatory gossip with her godsib Ofelia Gomez, Luke Regan's scullion.
1965, Willard Marsh, Week with No FridayThe Vicosino then went to his godsib and then to the Cornell Peru Project field director for confirmation of […]
1966, Henry F. Dobyns, Paul L. Doughty, Allan R. Holmberg, Cornell Peru Project, Peace Corps Program Impact in the Peruvian Andes: Final ReportAfter a man's kin and godsibs, the next allegiance is to his paisanos (fellow countrymen) or […]
1968, Paul L. Doughty, Mary F. Doughty, Huaylas: An Andean District in Search of Progress, page 37[…] to members of their own family, intimates (especially their godsibs), and ideally the priest, who usually is too busy to accept all invitations.
1968, Earl W. Morris, Coming Down the Mountain: The Social Worlds of Mayobamba
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Middle Englishgodsib
- Englishgodsib
Learned borrowing from Middle English godsib, variant of gossib; doublet of gossip and by surface analysis, god- + sib; see those entries for more.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
godsib. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/godsib
“godsib.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/godsib. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “godsib,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/godsib.
Source: godsib on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.