A Roman Family Included the Servants
A family is a group related by blood or marriage. The Latin word covered everyone in a household, including those who were not relatives.
A family is a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption. The Latin *familia* was defined by the household, not by kinship: it included servants and enslaved people, and derived from *famulus*, a servant. The modern sense of a group of relatives is an English narrowing, and even now the word stretches to language families and biological classification.
- A group of relatives. *A large family.*
- A taxonomic rank. *The cat family.*
- A group of related things. *A family of languages.*
- Family as a modifier. *Family business.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | family | An extended family. |
| Plural | families | Two families. |
| Adjective | familial | A familial trait. |
| Related | familiar | A familiar face. |
| Related | famulus | Latin *famulus*. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The family are away.British: often plural.
- Cats belong to the family Felidae.Biology.
- Familiar means of the family.Something you know as well as your household.
Biological ranks
- Domain — the broadest
- Kingdom, Phylum, Class — successively narrower
- Order — above family
- Family — a group of related genera
- Genus and Species — the two parts of a scientific name
From Latin *familia*, a household including servants, from *famulus*, a servant. The kinship sense developed in English.
Are family and familiar related?
Yes. Familiar meant belonging to the household, and therefore well known.
Is *family* singular or plural?
Both. British English often treats it as plural when thinking of the members; American English prefers the singular.