Mark Evanier has a question: "John is Jerry's uncle. Marsha is Tom's sister. John marries Marsha. What relationship then is Tom to Jerry? He's not his uncle. Is there such a thing as an uncle-in-law? Or does this make him some kind of cousin? Is there any tidy term to describe this relationship? I'm an unmarried only-child so this stuff is alien to me."
Evanier's obfuscatory description doesn't help, but after drawing a quick chart I came to the conclusion that "uncle's brother-in-law" is reasonably tidy and clear.
English doesn't really have tidy terms for extended family: is my spouse's sister's husband my brother-in-law? (I say not.)
While I'm on this, a sister-in-law might be either the sister of a spouse, or a brother's wife. (Or both. Don't try it at home.) I sure don't know what you're supposed to call the relationship of a sister-in-law of the former kind to one of the latter kind.
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