Gens meaning

jĕnz
A patrilineal clan of ancient Rome composed of several families of the same name claiming a common ancestor and belonging to a common religious cult.
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An exogamous patrilineal clan.
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In ancient Rome, a clan united by descent through the male line from a common ancestor and having both name and religious observances in common.
noun
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Any tribe or clan; esp., an exogamous group claiming descent through the male line.
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Generations.
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(historical) A legally defined unit of Roman society, being a collection of people related by birth, marriage or adoption, but allowing a greater amount of time between members and their common ancestor than is commonly implied by the term related.
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(anthropology) A tribal subgroup whose members are characterized by having the same descent, usually along the male line.
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Origin of gens

  • Latin gēns genə- in Indo-European roots
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Latin gēns (“gens; tribe, people”); see also gentile, gender, genus, generate.
    From Wiktionary
  • Shortened from generations.
    From Wiktionary

Gens Sentence Examples

  • It is not known to what gens he belonged.

  • He lived in the household of a member of the gens Livia, probably M.

  • The name seems to show that he was a freedman of some member of the Clodian gens.

  • This was the famous " ash-altar " at which the Iamidae, the hereditary gens of seers, practised those rights of divination by fire in virtue of which more especially Olympia is saluted by Pindar as mistress of truth."

  • GAIUS LICINIUS CALVUS STOLO, Roman statesman, the chief representative of the plebeian Licinian gens, was tribune in 377 B.C., consul in 361.

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Also Mentioned In

Words near gens in the Dictionary