tribe

See also: Tribe

English

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Middle English tribe, tribu, from Old French tribu, from Latin tribus. Doublet of tribus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹaɪb/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪb

Noun

tribe (plural tribes)

1. (history, anthropology) An ethnic group larger than a band or clan (and which may contain clans) but smaller than a nation (and which in turn may constitute a nation with other tribes). The tribe is often the basis of ethnic identity.

   the Twelve Tribes of Israel; Germanic tribes; Celtic tribes

   The Formation of Kazakh Identity: From Tribe to Nation-state

2. (synecdochically) A tribal nation or people.
   • 1911, Cyrus Thomas, Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America‎^[1]:

     This leaves for consideration of this group of small tribes, or subtribes, so far as mapped by the writer quoted, the Teule, Cazcan, and Tecuexe.

3. (informal, derogatory) A nation or people considered culturally primitive, as may be the case in Africa, Australia or Native America.
4. A socially cohesive group of people within a society.
   • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 26:

     The thought of spending a year in close company with twitchers chilled me to the core. Not that I have anything against them, I am terribly fond of the members of the tribe, it is just that basically, they are a bunch of obsessive freaks.

5. A class or group of things.
   • 1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, page 7:

     In 1968, estimates of the number of active reprint publishers ranged from about 20 to 100 publishers. The fact that almost 300 U.S. reprint publishers have been identified is evidence that the reprint tribe continues to increase.

6. (zoology) A group of apes who live and work together.
7. (taxonomy) A hierarchical rank between family and genus.
   • 1960, Doklady. Biological Sciences Sections, volumes 132–135, Washington, D.C.: American Institute of Biological Sciences, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 640, column 2:

     The tempo of evolution in South American hamsters was very rapid – in the course of the Pliocene and Anthropocene 40 genera were formed here, at which time a series of them attained the level of tribe and subtribe (Oxymycteri, Phyllotiini, Ichthyomyini).

8. A group of affiliated Mardi Gras Indians.
9. The collective noun for various animals.
10. (stock breeding) A family of animals descended from some particular female progenitor, through the female line.

    the Duchess tribe of shorthorns

Synonyms

• (taxonomy): tribus

Derived terms

• criminal tribe
• Grey Tribe
• tribal
• tribalism
• tribalist
• tribalistic
• tribally
• tribelet
• your vibe attracts your tribe

 

Translations

group of people

• Albanian: fis (sq) m
• Arabic: قَبِيلَة (ar) f (qabīla), عَشِيرَة (ar) f (ʕašīra), قَوْم m (qawm)

  Egyptian Arabic: قوم m (ʔōm)

  Hijazi Arabic: قَبِيلَة f (gabīla)

• Armenian: ցեղ (hy) (cʻeġ)
• Asturian: tribu f
• Azerbaijani: qəbilə (az), tayfa, qövm
• Bashkir: ҡәбилә (qəbilə)
• Belarusian: пле́мя n (pljémja), род m (rod)
• Bengali: উপজাতি (bn) (upojati)
• Bulgarian: пле́ме (bg) n (pléme), род (bg) m (rod)
• Burmese: အမျိုးအနွယ် (my) (a.myui:a.nwai), အမျိုးဇာတ် (my) (a.myui:jat)
• Carpathian Rusyn: пле́м'я n (plémʺja), род m (rod)
• Catalan: tribu (ca) f
• Chechen: тукхам (tuqam)
• Chickasaw: okloshi'
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 部落 (bou⁶ lok⁶), 部族 (bou⁶ zuk⁶)

  Hokkien: 部落 (zh-min-nan) (pō͘-lo̍k)

  Mandarin: 部落 (zh) (bùluò), 部族 (zh) (bùzú)

• Crimean Tatar: qabile
• Czech: kmen (cs) m, rod (cs) m
• Danish: stamme (da) c, folkestamme c
• Dutch: stam (nl) m
• Egyptian: (wḥyt f)
• Esperanto: tribo
• Estonian: hõim
• Farefare: buuri
• Faroese: ættarbólkur m (biblical), ættargrein f (biblical)
• Finnish: heimo (fi)
• French: tribu (fr) f
• Galician: tribo (gl) m
• Georgian: ტომი (ṭomi)
• German: Stamm (de) m, Volksstamm (de) m, Sippe (de) f, Volk (de) n, Völkchen (de) n, Völklein n, Sippschaft (de) f, (biology) Tribus (de) f, Völkerschaft (de) f
• Greek: φύλο (el) n (fýlo), φυλή (el) f (fylí)

  Ancient: φυλή f (phulḗ)

• Hebrew: שֵׁבֶט (he) m (shévet)
• Hindi: जनजाति (hi) f (janjāti), क़बीला m (qabīlā), क़ौम f (qaum)
• Hungarian: törzs (hu)
• Icelandic: ættkvísl (is) f
• Ido: tribuo (io)
• Indonesian: suku (id), suku bangsa
• Ingush: тукхам (tuqam)
• Interlingua: tribo
• Irish: treibh f
• Italian: tribù (it) f
• Japanese: 部族 (ja) (ぶぞく, buzoku), 民族 (ja) (みんぞく, minzoku)
• Kazakh: тайпа (taipa), ұлыс (ūlys)
• Khmer: កុលសម័្ពន្ធ (kolsampŏən)
• Korean: 겨레 (ko) (gyeore), 부족(部族) (ko) (bujok), 민족(民族) (ko) (minjok)
• Kumyk: эл (el)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: eşîr (ku), qebîle (ku)

• Kyrgyz: уруу (ky) (uruu), тукум (ky) (tukum), эл (ky) (el)
• Lao: ຊົນເຜົ່າ (son phao), ເຜົ່າ (phao)
• Latgalian: patauta
• Latin: tribus (la) f
• Latvian: cilts m
• Lithuanian: gentis m
• Macedonian: племе n (pleme)
• Malay: suku (ms), puak (ms)
• Manchu: ᠠᡳᠮᠠᠨ (aiman), ᠠᡳᠮᠠᠨ
  ᡥᠣᡴᡳ (aiman hoki)
• Maori: iwi, mātāwaka
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: овог (mn) (ovog), аймаг (mn) (ajmag)

• Moore: buudu
• Nandi: em
• Ngazidja Comorian: kaɓila class 5/6
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stamme (no) m, folkestamme m

  Nynorsk: stamme m or f, folkestamme m or f

• Occitan: tribú (oc)
• Odia: ଜନଜାତି (janajāti)
• Old English: þēod f
• Pashto: قبيله (ps) f (qabila)
• Persian:

  Dari: قَبِیلَه (qabīla), عَشِیرَه (ašīra), قَوْم (qawm)

  Iranian Persian: قَبیلِه (ğabile), عَشیرِه (ašire), زَنْد (zand) (archaic), قُوْم (ğowm)

• Polish: plemię (pl) n, ród (pl) m
• Portuguese: tribo (pt) f
• Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi: ਕਬੀਲਾ m (kabīlā)

  Shahmukhi: قَبِیلَہ m (qabīlah)

• Romanian: trib (ro) n
• Russian: пле́мя (ru) n (plémja), род (ru) m (rod)
• Saterland Frisian: Stamme pl
• Scottish Gaelic: cinneadh m, seòrsa m, sliochd m, treubh f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пле̏ме n

  Roman: plȅme (sh) n

• Sinhalese: ගෝත්‍ර (gōtra)
• Slovak: kmeň (sk) m, rod (sk) m
• Slovene: pleme (sl) n
• Somali: qabiil
• Spanish: tribu (es) f
• Sudovian: gintu
• Swahili: kabila (sw) class ma
• Swedish: stam (sv) c
• Tagalog: tribo (tl)
• Tajik: қабила (qabila), қавм (qavm), ашира (ašira)
• Tatar: кабилә (tt) (qabilä)
• Telugu: తెగ (te) (tega)
• Thai: เผ่า (th) (pào), ตระกูล (th) (dtrà-guun)
• Tibetan: སྡེ་རིགས (sde rigs)
• Tlingit: ḵwáan
• Turkish: boy (tr), kabile (tr)
• Turkmen: taýpa
• Ukrainian: пле́м'я n (plémʺja), рід m (rid)
• Urdu: قَبِیلَہ m (qabīla), قَوم (ur) f (qaum), عَشِیرَہ m ('aśīra)
• Uyghur: قوۋم (qowm), قەبىلە (qebile)
• Uzbek: qabila (uz)
• Vietnamese: bộ lạc (vi) (部落), bộ tộc (vi) (部族)
• Volapük: tribüt (vo), (diminutive) tribütil, pöpatribüt
• Welsh: llwyth (cy) m, llwythau (cy) m pl
• Yiddish: שבֿט m (sheyvet)
• Zazaki: eşîr

taxonomy: hierarchical rank between family and genus

• Hungarian: nemzetség (hu) (of animals), nemzetségcsoport (of plants and fungi)

collective noun (see at the relevant animal entry)

• Swahili: kabila (sw)

Verb

tribe (third-person singular simple present tribes, present participle tribing, simple past and past participle tribed)

1. (transitive) To distribute into tribes or classes; to categorize.
   • 1696-1699, William Nicolson, English Historical Library

     Our fowl, fish, and quadruped are well tribed.

See also

• ethnic
• Appendix:English collective nouns

Anagrams

• Berti, Breit, Tiber, biter, rebit

Middle English

Alternative forms

• trybe, tribu

Etymology

From Old French tribu, from Latin tribus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtriːb(ə)/, /ˈtriːbu/

Noun

tribe (plural tribus)

1. One of the twelve tribes of Israel.
2. (rare) Any tribe or kin group.
3. (rare) A league or grouping.

Descendants

• English: tribe

References

• “trībe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-03.