Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Inbred |
InbredAdjective1. Produced by inbreeding. 2. Normally existing at birth; "mankind's connatural sense of the good". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "inbred" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1663. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Inbreeding is breeding between close relatives (called incest in the case of humans). If practised repeatedly, it leads to a reduction in genetic diversity. Inbreeding often leads to reduced health and fitness; however, livestock breeders often practice inbreeding, then cull unfit offspring, especially when they are trying to establish a new and desirable trait in their stock.Inbreeding occurs in animals. For example, the cheetah is a highly inbred species, probably because of a population bottleneck in the species' recent past. Inbreeding is also deliberately induced in laboratory mice in order to guarantee a consistent and uniform animal model. Human genetic diversity is also limited, indicating a population bottleneck some 100,000 years ago.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Inbreeding."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Incest is sexual activity between close family members. It is a taboo in most societies and a criminal offence and an impediment to marriage in most countries, as well as being against most modern religions. But the exact definition of what is a "close family member" varies widely: some jurisdictions consider only those related by birth, others also those related by adoption or marriage; some prohibit relations only with immediate family members and ancestors or descendants, while others prohibit relations with aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins as well.The term is also sometimes used metaphorically, to describe relationships between an authority figure and a pupil, such as teacher-student or troop leader and scout, or between those who are closely related in some other nonsexual way, as in an "incestuous relationship" between stockbrokers and mutual fund managers.
Anthropologists have found that all societies place restrictions on who one may marry. Although marriage should not be confused with sex, many societies only permit sexual relations within the bounds of marriage--hence, their rules regarding marriage are the same as their rules regarding sex. And in other societies, where sexual relations are permitted outside marriage, persons prohibited to marry are most often (but not always) also prohibited to have sex. Sociology generalizes these marriage restrictions with the terms endogamy -- the group within which one must marry -- and exogamy -- the group one must not marry.
All societies have rules of exogamy, such as incest taboos, that specify ranges and categories of relatives who are forbidden as marriage (and sexual) partners. The most closely related biological kin -- parents, children, brothers and sisters -- are universally included. Most societies restrict other close relatives, but these extensions vary.
Most societies also specify rules that encourage and sometimes force marriage within groups, frequently ethnic and religious ones. Even in modern Western societies, individuals consistently express preferences for mates from similar social class and educational backgrounds, and attempts to violate this endogamic principle can cause dramatic resistance from the associates of the violators, despite the society's pervasive emphasis on love and individual choice.
The description and analysis of incest, and beliefs concerning incest, are complicated by the fact that the definitions of "close family member" and "sex" vary widely across cultures. For example, Trobriand Islanders prohibit both sexual relations between a man and his mother, and between a woman and her father, but they describe these prohibitions in very different ways: relations between a man and his mother fall within the category of forbidden relations among members of the same clan; relations between a woman and her father do not. This is because the Trobrianders are matrilineal; children belong to the clan of their mother and not of their father. Thus, sexual relations between a man and his mother's sister (and mother's sister's daughter) are also considered incestuous, but relations between a man and his father's sister are not. Indeed, a man and his father's sister will often have a flirtatious relationship, and a man and the daughter of his father's sister may prefer to have sexual relations or marry.
Some cultures cover relatives by marriage in incest prohibitions. For example, the question of the legality and morality of a widower who wished to marry his deceased wife's sister was the subject of long and fierce debate in 19th century Great Britain, involving, among others, Matthew Boulton.
In most of the Western world incest generally refers to forbidden sexual relations within the family. Incest is most frequently engaged in by parents of both sexes and their children. And while it is usually perceived as an act engaged in by a father and his daughter, this is yet another myth surrounding the practice. Historically, the most important forms of incest were maternal incest (see also Oedipus complex). And while surveys do not indicate a high rate of maternal incest, this can be seen as a reflection of the difficulty of collecting information about illegal sexual acts with children rather than its rare occurrence.
It is widely, but by no means universally, agreed that incest by parents is abuse and should be illegal. Some societies, notably India in the 1920s, consider incest an inescapable fact of life. In many societies some forms of sexual contact between close family members is socially (and sometimes even publicly) encouraged. For example, in Bali it was encouraged for mothers to sexually stimulate infants. This practice, among many others, is also common among certain tribes in Papua New Guinea, Polynesian and Melanesian islands. It is also common among the Japanese who claim to have no Oedipal complex "because the father is no competition" to the son.
Examples of incest in mythology are rampant. Zeus and Hera are brother and sister as well as husband and wife. They were the children of Cronus and Rhea who were also brother and sister as well as husband and wife.
Finally, there is also the much rarer phenomenon of consensual incestuous relations between adults, such as between an adult brother and sister. This is illegal in most places, but these laws are sometimes questioned on the grounds that such relations do not harm other people (provided the couple have no children) and so should not be criminalized. Artificial insemination and distant adoption have compounded these problems. There are known cases of people having romances, or even marrying, only to later find out they are closely related.
Proposals have been made from time to time to repeal these laws--for example, the proposal by the Australian Model Criminal Code Officer's Committee discussion paper "Sexual Offences against the Person" released in November 1996. (This particular proposal was later withdrawn by the committee, in spite of their own feelings on the issue, due to a large public outcry. Defenders of the proposal argue that the outcry was mostly based on the misunderstanding that the committee was intending to legalize sexual relations between parents and their minor children, which it did not.)
Adult incest has been notable in royal dynasties, probably in order to help concentrate wealth and political influence within the family (historical evidence suggests that this practice actually weakened the genetic makeup of elite society family lines, resulting in abnormally high occurrences of rare genetic defects and diseases). Although the marriage unions were often not consensual, with young adults or children forced to marry close relatives, this does not imply the sex was non-consensual. Best known for this practice, which included brother-sister marriages, are the dynasties of Ancient Egypt.
The Tanach (Old Testament) contains prohibitions (primarily in Leviticus) against sexual relations between various pairs of family members. Father and daughter, mother and son, etc., are forbidden on pain of death to engage in sexual relations. An interesting aspect of the Tanach's prohibition of incest is that, according to the interpretation given it by some anthropologists, it prohibits sexual relations between aunts and nephews but not between uncles and nieces.
The Bible also contains a number of references to incest. This subject is examined in the Wikipedia article Biblical references to incest.
See also: Westermarck effect, sexual morality, incest taboo, motherfucker.
External links
- The Universality of Incest, by Lloyd deMause ([1]) - author argues that incest is universal across all human societies; equates incest with incest with children; argues that sexual relations between children and third persons with parental knowledge or consent constitutes 'indirect incest'
- Comment on "The Universality of Incest," by Andrew Vachss ([1]) - comments on deMause's article by well-known children's attorney and child protection consultant.
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4331603,00.html - article from The Guardian newspaper, concerning a case of allegedly consensual adult parent-child incest
- http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/tutor/marriage/usa-ncst.html - State Variations on American Marriage Prohibitions
- http://www.vachss.com/help_text/incest.html - Intrafamilial (Incest) Abuse Resources
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Incest."
Synonyms: InbredSynonyms: connatural (adj), inborn (adj), native (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonym: outbred (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Affections | Inborn, inbred, ingrained; deep-rooted, ineffaceable, inveterate; pathoscopic; congenital, dyed in the wool, implanted by nature, inherent, in the grain. |
Intrinsicality | Adjective: derived from within, subjective; intrinsic, intrinsical; fundamental, normal; implanted, inherent, essential, natural; innate, inborn, inbred, ingrained, inwrought; coeval with birth, genetous, haematobious, syngenic; radical, incarnate, thoroughbred, hereditary, inherited, immanent; congenital, congenite; connate, running in the blood; ingenerate, ingenite; indigenous; in the grain; Noun: bred in the bone, instinctive; inward, internal; to the manner born; virtual. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Inbred |
| English words defined with "inbred": In-, Ingenit. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "inbred": Gross Virus ♦ Leukemia Viruses, Murine ♦ MANAGER, PRODUCTION, SEED CORN, manager, regional, Mice, Inbred mdx, Mice, Inbred Strains, Mice, Jimpy, Mice, Obese ♦ Rats, Inbred Dahl, Rats, Inbred OLETF, Rats, Long-Evans ♦ Transplantation, Isogeneic. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "inbred": Inbreed. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Then you get into that whole inbred thing (Hot Shots!; writing credit: Jim Abrahams; Pat Proft) Well they may be half-bred, but at least they're not friggin' inbred like those two monstrosities (East Is East; writing credit: Ayub Khan-Din) You're just an ignorant, inbred, tumbleweed hick (U Turn; writing credit: John Ridley) You sit around twisting the facts to suit your inbred theories (Kafka; writing credit: Lem Dobbs) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Inbred Rednecks (2001) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Geneticist Jerry Miller (left) and technician Dale Rehder pollinate sunflowers to develop new inbred lines that produce oil in the mid-oleic range. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Russ Hanson.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Inbred" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 73.53% of the time. "Inbred" is used about 34 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 73.53% | 25 | 69,787 |
| Lexical Verb (past participle) | 17.65% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Lexical Verb (past tense) | 8.82% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 34 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "inbred": inbred gait ♦ inbred line. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "inbred": long-inbred, recombinant-inbred. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
inbred | 44 |
human inbred | 7 |
inbred people | 6 |
inbred rednecks | 6 |
inbred man mountain | 6 |
inbred picture | 5 |
human inbred picture | 5 |
hillbillies inbred | 4 |
inbred mouse | 4 |
inbred people picture | 3 |
family inbred | 3 |
child inbred | 3 |
deformity inbred | 2 |
inbred mountain people | 2 |
inbred pic | 2 |
inbred virginia west | 2 |
arsenist.com inbred | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "inbred"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i natyrshëm (artless, inartificial, inborn, matter of course, native, natural, unstudied), i lindur (born, congenital, inborn, innate, native, natural, nee). (various references) | |
Arabic | فطري (congenital, connate, fungoid, fungous, fungus, habitual, inborn, indigenous, inherent, innate, native, natural, primitive, radical), طبيعي (homely, inborn, indigenous, natural, naturalist, naturalistic, normal, physical, primitive, spontaneous, straight, temperamental, unaffected). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | вроден (congenital, connate, connatural, elemental, glandular, inborn, indigenous, inherent, innate, native, natural, radical, temperamental, unconditioned, untaught, untutored), наследствен (ancestral, hereditary, heritable, inheritable). (various references) | |
Chinese | 先天 (Congenital, idiopathic). (various references) | |
Czech | zdìdìný (ancestral, inherited), vrozený (congenital, connate, connatural, inborn, inherent, innate, native). (various references) | |
Danish | indgift (administration, application), konsangvin, blodsbeslægtet (blood relationship, ties of blood). (various references) | |
Dutch | ingeboren (congenital, inborn, innate, native), aangeboren (congenital, congentital, inborn, innate, native). (various references) | |
Esperanto | kunnaskita (congentital, inborn, innate, native), denaska (congenital, inborn, innate, native). (various references) | |
Finnish | synnynnäinen (congenital, inborn, inherent, innate), sisäsiittoinen, perintötekijöiltään sukulainen, konsangviininen. (various references) | |
French | naturel (inartificial, inborn, innate), inné (inborn, innate), consanguin. (various references) | |
Frisian | oanberne (congenital, inborn, innate, native). (various references) | |
German | angeboren (congenital, congenitally, congentital, connate, inborn, inbuilt, inherent, inherently, innate, native, temperamentally, untaught). (various references) | |
Greek | όμαιμος, έμφυτοσ (immanent, inborn, inherent, innate, instinctive, native, natural). (various references) | |
Hebrew | שמלדה (congenital, inborn), טבעי (genuine, natural, unstudied). (various references) | |
Hungarian | veleszületett (congenital, connate, inborn, innate, original), természetadta (inborn, indwelling), beltenyésztésű. (various references) | |
Italian | innato (inborn, inherent, innate, native, natural), naturale (careless, lifelike, native, natural, racy), endogamo, consanguineo (akin, cognate, consanguineous, kin, kinsman). (various references) | |
Manx | ynsheelrit, coruggyragh (innate). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | inbreday.(various references) | |
Polish | od urodzenia (congenital, inborn, innate, native). (various references) | |
Portuguese | inato (born, congenital, connate, inborn, innate), natural (apparent, artless, breathing, flowing, genuine, glib, inartificial, innate, lifelike, matter-of-course, native, natural, normal, outage, physical, plain, shirt-sleeve, spontaneous, unaffected, unconstrained, unlaboured, unsophisticated, unstrained, unstudied, untaught, unvarnished), consanguneo. (various references) | |
Romanian | inculcat, înnãscut (born, connate, connatural, inborn, inherent, innate, native, original). (various references) | |
Russian | врожденный (bred in the bone, congenital, connate, connatural, inborn, inbuilt, ingrain, ingrained, ingrown, innate, native, untaught, untutored), природный (innate, native, natural). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | urođen (congenital, connate, connatural, inborn, innate, native, natural), prirođen (innate). (various references) | |
Spanish | innato (congenital, congentital, inborn, innate, native). (various references) | |
Swedish | medfödd (congenital, connate, connatural, constitutional, inate, inborn, indigenous, inherent, innate, native, untaught). (various references) | |
Thai | ตั้งแต่เกิด. (various references) | |
Turkish | doğuştan (congenital, congenitally, inborn, inherently, innate, native, natural, naturally, trueborn), doğal (artless, connatural, easy, free, inartificial, inborn, indigenous, ingenuous, inherent, innate, native, natural, spontaneous, unaffected, unschooled, unsophisticated, unstudied), akraba evliliği sonucu olan. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | природний (artless, careless, connatural, elemental, indigenous, matter of course, native, natural, physic, radical, unartful, unlabored, unlaboured, untaught, untutored), природжений (born, congenial, congenital, connate, habitual, inborn, ingrain, ingrained, ingrown, inherent, innate, native, natural, organic, original, true born, unschooled). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "inbred": inbreds. (additional references) | |
| |
"Inbred" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: imbred, Inbaraj, inbend, inbet, inbread, inbued, incred, indred, inered, infred, ingred, inhred, inired, injred, inkred, inlred, inmred, innred, inored, inpred, inqred, inradd, inre, inrred, insred, intred, invred, inwred, inxred, inyred, inzred, iubere, N'breda, unbred. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "inbred" (pronounced i"nbre'd) |
| 5 | -n b r e' d | cornbread. |
| 4 | -b r e' d | gingerbread. |
| 3 | -r e' d | bedspread. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: binder, brined, rebind. | |
| Words within the letters "b-d-e-i-n-r" | |
-1 letter: bider, bride, brine, diner, rebid. | |
-2 letters: bend, bide, bier, bind, bine, bird, bred, bren, brie, brin, deni, dine, dire, drib, ired, nerd, nide, rein, rend, ride, rind. | |
-3 letters: bed, ben, bid, bin, deb, den, dib, die, din, end, ern, ire, neb, nib, reb, red, rei, rib, rid, rin. | |
-4 letters: be, bi, de, ed, en. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-d-e-i-n-r" | |
+1 letter: binders, bindery, birdmen, blinder, brained, brinded, brindle, inbreds, inbreed, prebind, rebinds. | |
+2 letters: bearding, befriend, beringed, bilander, blinders, brandied, brandies, breading, breeding, brindled, brindles, debonair, endbrain, inbreeds, interbed, linebred, ovenbird, prebinds, rebidden, rendible, ribboned, unbridle, unburied, underbid. | |
+3 letters: badgering, bandolier, bargained, bedraping, bedridden, bedspring, befriends, befringed, begirding, bilanders, binderies, birdieing, blinkered, bordering, boyfriend, breadline, breedings, burdening, burnished, burnsides, debarking, debarring, debriding, desorbing, disburden, drinkable, endbrains, firebrand, forbidden, gabardine, gaberdine, imbrowned, inscribed, interbeds, interbred, ovenbirds, rabidness, rebidding, rebinding, rebodying, redubbing, sideburns, snakebird, tinderbox, unbraided, unbridged, unbridled, unbridles, unbriefed, unbruised, underbids, underbrim, unridable, urbanised, urbanized, windbreak. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
