Words...

The other day I was talking with one of my friends about the previous weekend-what we had done, how exciting (not) it had been, etc. She started telling me something about seeing her daughter's mother-in-law, and from there I asked her if there is a specific word for that relationship-in other words-what is the word to describe the specific relation between her and her daughter's mother-in-law? For example, her daughter's children would be grandchildren; her sister's children would be nieces and nephews, etc. One brother's children would be cousins to another brother or sister's children. So there are words to describe specific relationships. But in English, I believe, there is no word that would describe how one mother-in-law is related to another mother-in-law. I remembered how my mother-in-law would always ask how my mother was. "Como esta mi comadre?" she would ask. So I explained that the words comadre and copadre in Spanish imply some type of relationship that doesn't seem to have an equivalent word in English. She thought about it a bit and arrived at a conclusion. "Oh, it means like co mother." I hadn't quite thought about it, but I guess in a way it made sense. But of course, the words comadre and compadre aren't always used to describe the relation between the two different set of parents. I explained that the godfather or godmother of a child is also called a comadre and compadre. Etc.