tribal

Definition

Of or relating to tribes.

Etymology

From Latin tribālis. By surface analysis, tribe + -al, first attested in the 1630s. The specific adjectival sense under the defunct theory of recapitulation derives from tribal history as an overly literal learned borrowing from German Stammesgeschichte; ordinarily, Stamm would only be translated as tribe when used in its ethnographic sense.

Example Sentences

• "social order through tribal law"
• "a tribal society"
• "tribal history"