In ancient times, people lived in large families, and in order to somehow name relatives, many words were invented, such as "daughter-in-law", "sister-in-law", "brother-in-law", "brother-in-law" and others. Today, not all people know exactly what these words mean.
Sister-in-law
It is customary to call the sister-in-law of the husband's sister. Moreover, the origin of the word is quite interesting: it was formed from the word "evil", because the husband's sisters were considered evil by the young wives. This is not to say that they had no reason for this.
Why is the sister-in-law evil
In small villages, it still often happens that a significant part of the population is relatives. They call each other that: sister-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and so on.
When a girl got married, she went to live in her husband's house, where there was already a large family. The order was often not what she was used to. In addition, in her home, the girl was loved by members of her family, they treated her with understanding, trusted her with the work that she liked, could forgive any imperfections.
Everything was different in my husband's house. The young wife ended up in a strange family, where they looked at her at the same time as an "extra mouth" and as a new labor force. She was pushed around by everyone who pleases: her husband, elders, as well as her husband's sisters and brothers. Usually the sisters were especially different, as they were also a little jealous of the new family member. Still, their brother, whom they rocked in the cradle and with whom they played as children, brought a woman into the house, and no longer pays attention to the sisters.
Sister-in-law could "drag the daughter-in-law by the braids" if she did the housework badly. Sometimes my husband's sisters found fault even when everything was done well.
A young wife, especially at first, usually had to get up before dark, work to order, not be lazy, and most importantly, in no case argue with other family members. Otherwise, if she objected, she was immediately considered spoiled, too demanding, they said that she had a different character. And there was no one who could intercede for her, except her husband, who was also often under the influence of older relatives. So if a young wife quarreled with someone from her husband's family, usually this promised her only difficulties.
But for some reason, the names of the husband's parents and brothers are not associated with evil, but the sisters are called exactly the sister-in-law. The fact is that it was the sisters who usually tried to shift as many responsibilities as possible onto the shoulders of the new worker in the family. They also loved to give orders to their daughter-in-law and express their comments to her.
Current state of affairs
Nowadays, young couples rarely stay with their parents, and even less often with other relatives, sisters and brothers. If possible, the newlyweds immediately move into a separate apartment. Therefore, disputes with sisters-in-law are a thing of the past, with the exception of rare cases when people are still forced to live together.
In memory of those times, there are only a few sayings: "The cousin's speeches are like thorns", "the sister-in-law is evil" and others.
