Tribe
/traɪb/noun
A social group sharing ancestry, culture, or a common identity.
Did you know?The word ultimately comes from Latin for one of Rome’s earliest political divisions, the *tribus*, and its deeper history is tied to a root meaning “three,” likely because Rome was once imagined as divided into three original groupings.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*tréyes
“three”
Old Latin
Latin
tribus
“one of the original Roman tribal divisions”
Classical Latin
Latin
tribus
“a tribe, district, or people-group within Rome”
Late Latin
Latin
tribus
“a people or clan”
Middle English
English
tribe
“a social group or people”