Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word gens. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word gens, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say gens in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word gens you have here. The definition of the word gens will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofgens, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
[page 568, column 2] There were certain sacred rites (sacra gentilitia) which belonged to a gens, to the observance of which all the members of a gens, as such, were bound, whether they were members by birth, adoption, or adrogation. A person was freed from the observance of such sacra, and lost the privileges connected with his gentile rites, when he lost his gens, that is, when he was adrogated, adopted, or even emancipated; for adrogation, adoption, and emancipation were accompanied by a diminutio capitis. […] [page 569, column 2] As the gentes were subdivisions of the three ancient tribes, the populus (in the ancient sense) alone had gentes, so that to be a patrician and to have a gens were synonymous; and thus we find the expressions gens and patricii constantly united.
Caius Julius Caesar belonged to the gens Julius, his father's name was Caesar, and his own individual name (praenomen) was Caius. Women were given the clan name as their own; Caesar's sister was called Julia, and a younger sister would have been called Julia Minor.
1877, Lewis H[enry] Morgan, “Organization of Society upon the Basis of Sex”, in Ancient Society: Or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, part II (Growth of the Idea of Government), pages 51–52:
The Kamilaroi are divided into six gentes, standing with reference to the right of marriage, in two divisions, […] Originally the first three gentes were not allowed to intermarry with each other, because they were subdivisions of an original gens; but they were permitted to marry into either of the other gentes, and vice versâ.
The taboos, the laws, the rules of gentes, tribes, and nations, from the lowest to the highest, are upheld by a vague terror and sacred awe which society impresses on man by threats of ill-luck, fearful evil, and terrible punishments befalling sinners and transgressors of the tabooed, of the holy and the forbidden, charged with a mysterious, highly contagious, and virulently infective life-consuming energy.
2006, Dzemal Sokolovic, “Man (between Individualism and Totalitarianism)”, in Nation vs. People: Bosnia is Just a Case, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, →ISBN, part I (Man and Social Grouping), page 15:
While a woman and a man [who are native Hawaiians] primarily establish a family, they nonetheless remain members of different genses, and it is only as members of different genses that they are able to set up the family. At the same time, the children belong to the family of their parents, but owing to the validity of their mother's side—exclusively, to the gens of their mother. Thus, the members of one and the same family, the closest blood-related community, are members of two different genses.
Regarding sense 1 (“historical Roman unit of society”), the concept is close to and often translated as clan, but the two are not identical. The alternative tribe is also sometimes used, but the Latintribus has a separate meaning.
Synonyms
(Roman unit of society):clan, tribe(but see the usage note)
Derived terms
gentile(“of or pertaining to a gens or several gentes”)
2004, Sally Bishai, “Courtship, Marriage and the Ubiquitous ‘Dating Thing’”, in Mid-East Meets West: On Being and Becoming a Modern Arab American, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 57:
For my fellow first-gens, get ready to hide a smirk, because your life story is likely hidden somewhere in this chapter. For the uninitiated—that is, the person who's never had a thing to do with the Arab way of doing things (namely dating)—I advise you to buckle up.
2016, Dwight Lang, “Witnessing Social Class in the Academy”, in Allison L. Hurst, Sandi Kawecka Nenga, editors, Working in Class: Recognizing How Social Class Shapes Our Academic Work, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, part 2 (Teaching), page 102:
[…] I witness firsthand the difficult "downstream" outcomes (Grusky 2014) of social class stratification in a university setting where approximately 3,400 undergraduates (13% of the undergraduate population) are first in their families to attend and/or graduate from college (first-gens). Most of these students are low income and nearly 1,200 first-gens have grown up in poverty.
2017, Temple Fennell, “SCIE: Sustainable Cycle of Investing Engagement”, in Kirby Rosplock, The Complete Direct Investing Handbook: A Guide for Family Offices, Qualified Purchasers, and Accredited Investors (Bloomberg Financial Series), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 242:
The Family Values and Framing Strategy steps address soft issues as what is the purpose of the new investment strategy, is there a desire to engage and train the next generation (Next Gens), and is there building buy-in and engagement across the family members important to strengthen family unity.
Je n’aime pas les gens qui se prennent pour le nombril du monde.
I don't like people who think the world revolves around them.
(literally, “I don't like people who take themselves for the navel of the world.”)
2018, Zaz, J'aime, j'aime:
Qu’est-ce que t’aimes, qu’est-ce que t’aimes ? Je sais pas, moi, ça dépend. J’aime plutôt les gens honnêtes.
What do you like, what do you like? I don't know; it depends. I quite like honest people.
Usage notes
When gens is preceded by an attributive adjective which has a different feminine form, this adjective, along with any preceding determiner, is made feminine. However, adjectives after the noun remain masculine.
Sī petat ā victīs, tot sūmat nōmina Caesar, quot numerō gentēs maximus orbis habet.
Were Caesar to seek his names from the conquered, he would have to assume as many in number as the vast world contains nations. 1851. The Fasti &c of Ovid. Translated by H. T. Riley. London: H. G. Bohn. pg. 38.
“gens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“gens”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
gens in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
gens in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
the territory of this race extends as far as the Rhine: haec gens pertinet usque ad Rhenum
to civilise men, a nation: homines, gentem a fera agrestique vita ad humanum cultum civilemque deducere (De Or. 1. 8. 33)
universal history: omnis memoria, omnis memoria aetatum, temporum, civitatum or omnium rerum, gentium, temporum, saeculorum memoria
to violate the law of nations: ius gentium violare
to completely annihilate a nation: gentem ad internecionem redigere or adducere (B. G. 2. 28)
“gens”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
gens in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
“gens”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
^ “kind”; in: M. Philippa e.a., Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands