A word first used in
Mercedes Lackey's
The Last Herald-Mage triology to describe the
homosexual character
Vanyel. Abbrieviated as
shaych, shay'a'chern translates from the
ficticious language of the
Taleydras or the
Hawkbrothers as "one whose lover is like the self" with a distinctly sexual connotation to the word that plainly does not mean family.
Shay'a'chern shows up in its abbrieviated form in later books having to deal with the Heralds of Valdemar and the Hawkbrothers.
The word she'chorn means the same thing as shaych and is from the same series of books, but is from the ficticious language of the Shin'a'in.