kin terminologies can be either descriptive or classificatory. when a descriptive terminology is used, a term refers to only one specific type of relationship, while a classificatory terminology groups many different types of relationships under one term. for example, the word "brother" in english-speaking societies indicates a son of one's same parent; thus, english-speaking societies use the word "brother" as a descriptive term referring to this relationship only. in many other classificatory kinship terminologies, in contrast, a person's male first cousin ( whether mother's brother's son, mother's sister's son, father's brother's son, father's sister's son) may also be referred to as brothers.