Akin means related, or similar in nature. Akin to jealousy, something akin to fear, closely akin.
It nearly always takes to and it is used of qualities and feelings rather than of things — something akin to panic. The literal sense of related by blood is now rare. Note that the word is a worn-down of kin, so being akin is being of the same family.
1adjectiveakinSimilar in nature, or related.
“Learning to ski felt akin to learning to walk all over again.”
akin is a quality of similarity.
Akin is a contraction of of kin, from Middle English of kyn. Kin comes from Old English cynn, a family.
Middle English
of kyn — related, of kin
English, today
akin
Built from
From a corruption of of kin, from Middle English of kyn (“related, of kin”), equivalent to a- + kin (1550s). Compare Old English cyn, cynn (“akin, proper, suitable”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA