There were three things that we could call Fingolfin's children: half-cousin, cousin and half-cousin, which sounds repetitive at first, but really isn't.
Half-cousin is harmless. It is the truth and most accurate, for our only shared blood comes from our grandfather Finwë. It's what we call them most often and it was the only thing our father allowed us to say in his house.
Cousin is slightly more insulting. It raises memories of the disputes between Fëanor and Fingolfin. It is always said in deceptively sweet voice, when an elder is present, an imitation of kinship that no one in our family truly feels.
But half-cousin is cruelest, the term that Celegorm prefers. The same words, with a different tone can have vastly different meanings. It's is what we use when alone, spoken with a hint of mockery and insult, as if they could somehow control who their father was. A reminder that those boys are just lower-born princes in the presence of Finwë's true heirs, products of a marriage that Fëanor viewed as illegitimate.
