family

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfæm.əl.i/, /ˈfæm.ɪ.li/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English familie, borrowed from Latin familia (“the servants of a household; the household”),^[2][3][4] a noun formed from famulus (“servant, slave”),^[4][2][5] from Old Latin famul.^[6] Barnhart compares Oscan famel (“servant”) and Ancient Greek θαμέες (thamées, “crowded”), and derives them from Proto-Indo-European *dhē- (“to put, place”);^[7] Klein suggests famulus may mean “belonging to the house”, from a base meaning “house” as in Sanskrit धामन् (dhā́man, “seat, dwelling place”),^[6][8] while Etymonline calls it of unknown origin.^[4] Latin familia rarely meant “parents with their children”, for which domus was used.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The servants of a house; the household (in the late 14th or early 15th century).^{[9][10][4][5]}

Semantic evolution

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins a person's family was at first their servants, then everyone living in one house, parents, children and servants, before the modern meaning settled in the later 15th century.^[11] The sense “those descended from a common ancestor, a lineage” is recorded from 1474, and “parents and their children” from 1484 in the Historical Thesaurus,^[10] though Etymonline dates the latter to the 1660s.^[4] Trench, writing in 1859, regretted that the word had ceased to include the servants, quoting Jeremy Taylor's advice to extend the same care “to all of our family … as to our children”.^[12] The sense “a group of related things” dates from 1598,^[10] and the biological rank between genus and order from 1753.^[4] Languages have been grouped in families since 1762.^[10] In 18th-century cant the family meant the community of thieves;^[13][10] the US sense “a unit of the Mafia” was popularized by the film The Godfather (1972).^[11] In the family way, “pregnant”, earlier meant “in a domestic setting, informally”.^[11][14] In South African English family without an article, meaning one's kinsfolk, is a calque of Afrikaans familie.^[15]

Timeline

• 1388 – the servants of a household.^[10]
• c. 1425 – familye, household.^[5]
• 1452 – a household of parents, children and servants.^[10]
• 1474 – a lineage.^[10]
• 1484 – parents and their children.^[10]
• 1598 – a group of related things.^[10]
• 1602 – as an adjective.^[3][10]
• 1725 – the family, thieves (cant).^[13]
• 1753 – a biological rank between genus and order.^[4]
• 1762 – a group of related languages.^[10]
• 1807 – family tree.^[7]
• 1930 – family planning.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A group of parents and their children living together as a unit.
2. A group of people related by blood or marriage; one's relatives.
3. The children of a person or couple: we want a large family.
4. All the descendants of a common ancestor; a lineage, especially a distinguished one.
5. All the members of a household.
6. A group of related things: a family of fonts.
7. (biology) A taxonomic rank above genus and below order.
8. (linguistics) The languages descended from a common ancestor.
9. A local unit of an organized crime group such as the Mafia.

Adjective

1. Of or relating to a family: a family farm.
2. Suitable for both children and adults: family movies.

Word family

• familyhood

Related words

• familial
• familiar
• familiarity
• famulus
• domestic

Usage notes

Random House treats family as a collective noun,^[16] and the Concise Oxford notes that it may take a singular or a plural verb.^[17] Black's Law Dictionary defines a family as persons connected by blood, affinity or law, or as a group living together with a shared commitment to a domestic relationship.^[18]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, Dictionary Unit for South African English, https://dsae.co.za
16. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
17. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West