Added 9 October 2026
tribal
/ˈtɹaɪbəl/ adjective
In Latin: gentilicius, tribālis First recorded: 1630 Wiktionary
adjective Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about tribal at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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Relating to or characteristic of a tribe.
tribal customs
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)