tribù

Forms

tribù f (invariable)^[1] The older form was Old Italian tribo, with the old plural tribora.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin tribus (“division of the people, tribe”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[4][2][5][6] The older Italian form was Old Italian tribo, used by Dante, Villani and Machiavelli;^[4][2] Migliorini, quoted by DELI, explains the later stress on the last syllable by the model of words such as virtù, and Nocentini agrees.^[4][2] Zingarelli and the GDLI instead attribute the final stress to French tribu.^[7][8] The same Latin word gave Spanish tribu.^[2]

In Rome the Latin word named the divisions of the people; the ancients already took it to mean one of three groups, which would make it a compound of tri- (“three”).^[4][2] Its only close relative is Umbrian trifu.^[9][10][1] De Vaan follows Weiss in reconstructing Proto-Italic *triþu- (“tripartite entity”), from a compound Proto-Indo-European *tri-dʰh₁-u- (“tripartite division”) with the root of Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[9][1] Nocentini, after Benveniste, prefers a second part from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, be born”), which would match the first part of Ancient Greek φυλή (phylḗ, “tribe”).^[2][4][1] DEI also mentions the view that the Latin noun was taken from tribūlis (“fellow tribesman”), as an adaptation of a Greek word for “of three tribes”.^[6] The Treccani dictionary and the GDLI call the formation uncertain.^[11][8] From the same Latin word come tribuno, tribunale and tributo.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the 14th century in the Italian translation of the Bible, for the twelve tribes into which the people of Israel was divided.^[4][5] The Italian translation of Livy uses it for the four districts of Rome that Servius Tullius named tribù.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the two forms competed: Vincenzio Borghini, before 1580, wrote that tribù was now the usual form, although “our fathers” had said tribo, and the first editions of the Crusca dictionary gave only tribo.^[4][3] Borghini also used the word for a social group of families sharing language and customs with their own head, the sense of modern ethnology.^[4]

In 1829 it became a term of botanical and zoological classification, for a rank between the family or subfamily and the genus.^[6][11] The jocular sense “a great number of people, a large family” is recorded in the 1922 Zingarelli.^[4] Through evolutionist ethnology, which saw the tribe as a primitive stage of society, the word also took on a scornful tone, as of a crude and backward group.^[11] The adjective tribale came in 1950 from French tribal, itself from English tribal.^[2]

Timeline

• 1300s – Tribù appears in the Italian translation of the Bible, for the tribes of Israel.^[4]
• Before 1580 – Vincenzio Borghini notes that tribù has replaced the older tribo.^[4][3]
• 1829 – The word is used in botany and zoology.^[6]
• 1891 – Petrocchi's dictionary records the sense of a district of the Roman state.^[4]
• 1922 – The jocular sense “a great crowd of people” is recorded in the Zingarelli dictionary.^[4]
• 1950 – The adjective tribale is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ethnology) A tribe: a group of families bound by language, customs and descent, often with its own territory and chief: Le tribù nomadi si spostavano con le stagioni.^{[5][12][7][11]}
2. (history) In ancient Rome, each of the three original ethnic divisions of the people, and later each of the districts of the Roman state, urban or rural: tribù urbane, tribù rustiche.^[5][7][11]
3. (history) In ancient Greece, a phyle, one of the units into which some peoples were divided.^[11]
4. (history) Each of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob.^[5][12][7]
5. (figurative, humorous) A large crowd of people, especially a very large family: Si è presentato alla festa con tutta la sua tribù.^{[5][12][13][14]}
6. (biology) A tribe in taxonomy, a rank between the family or subfamily and the genus.^[5][12][14]

Word family

• tribale
• sottotribù

Related words

• tribuno
• tribunale
• tributo
• Latin tribus
• French tribu

Usage notes

Tribù is invariable: la tribù, le tribù.^[1][5] The compound capo tribù means a tribal chief.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3891
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 328
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana