Gens

gens


 * 1) generations

Noun

 * 1) A legally defined unit of Roman society closest in meaning to and translated by English clan, but not identical to it. The gens was a collection of families whose members were related by birth, marriage or adoption. All the families were considered to have descended from a common clan ancestor although in cases where the time from the ancestor to the contemporary time was great the kinship was more remote than is meant by the English term "related." In such cases the legal definition still prevailed.
 * 2)  a tribal subgroup whose members are characterized by having the same descent, usually along the male line
 * 3) * 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:
 * The taboos, the laws, the rules of genses, tribes, and nations, from the lowest to the highest, are upheld by a vague terror and sacred awe which society impresses on man by threats of ill-luck, fearful evil, and terrible punishments befalling sinners and transgressors of the tabooed, of the holy and the forbidden, charged with a mysterious, highly contagious, and virulently infective life-consuming energy.

Thesaurus
animal kingdom, ashram, blood, body, breed, brood, caste, clan, class, colony, commonwealth, commune, community, deme, economic class, endogamous group, extended family, family, folk, house, kind, kinship group, line, lineage, matriclan, moiety, nation, nuclear family, order, patriclan, people, phratria, phratry, phyle, plant kingdom, race, sept, settlement, social class, society, species, stem, stirps, stock, strain, subcaste, totem, tribe

Etymology 1
Shortened from generations:.

Etymology 2
From gens:. See also gentile:, gender:, genus:, generate:.

Anagrams

 * engs
 * negs

Adverb

 * 1) a bit
 * 2) a few

Etymology
From gens.

Noun

 * 1)  set of people
 * Ces gens-là ont toujours été sympas avec moi.
 * Je n’aime pas les gens qui se prennent pour le nombril du monde.

Related terms

 * gente

Etymology
From the Indo-European root gan.

Noun

 * 1) Roman clan, related by birth or marriage and sharing a common name.
 * 2) tribe; people
 * 3) the chief gods

Derived terms

 * gentilīcius
 * gentīlis
 * gentīlitās
 * gentīlitās

Descendants

 * Asturian:
 * Catalan:
 * French:
 * Italian:
 * Neapolitan:


 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Sicilian:
 * Spanish: