Clan

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /klæn/

Definitions

1. A group of families or households united by common ancestry, kinship ties, or shared cultural identity, often bearing the same surname
2. A social group consisting of several families or households connected through blood relations, shared history, or cultural traditions, frequently identified by a specific name
3. A network of individuals or families bound by lineage, cultural practices, or mutual interests, typically characterized by a sense of belonging and loyalty

Etymology: The Latin word "planta," meaning a shoot or sprig, has a surprising path into English: it travelled through Welsh and Irish before arriving as "clan." Early Irish "cland" meant offspring or children of a family, and it moved from Old Welsh "plant," itself borrowed from Latin. So a word for a young plant, pushed sideways into Celtic speech, came to describe the children of a household and eventually the wider kin group. The Irish and Scottish Gaelic forms "clann" kept that sense of children and family line, and it was in Scottish Gaelic that the word came to mean a group of kinsmen sharing a common ancestor. English borrowed it from these Gaelic sources, and it became the familiar term for the Highland kin groups of Scotland. The English word "plant" is a doublet of "clan," a pair of words from the same Latin source that entered English by different routes. "Plant" came straight from Latin, while "clan" arrived through the Celtic languages, which is why the two look so different despite sharing a root.

Synonyms: tribe, family, kin, group, lineage

Antonyms: stranger, outsider, enemy, foe, rival