Tribe - Etymology

Etymology

The English word tribe occurs in 12th-century Middle English literature as referring to one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The word is from Old French tribu, in turn from Latin tribus, referring to the original tripartite ethnic division of the Ancient Rome Roman state: Ramnes (Ramnenses), Tities (Titienses), and Luceres, corresponding, according to Marcus Terentius Varro, to the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans respectively. The Ramnes were named after Romulus, leader of the Latins, Tities after Tatius, leader of the Sabines, and Luceres after Lucumo, leader of an Etruscan army that had assisted the Latins. According to Livy, the three tribes were in fact squadrons of knights, rather than ethnic divisions. The term's ultimate etymology is uncertain, perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European roots tri- ("three") and bhew ("to be"). Gregory Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics, he says, citing the linguist Émile Benveniste in his Origines de la formation des noms en indo-européen, that the Umbrian "trifu" (tribus) is apparently derived from a combination of *tri- and *bhu- where the second element is cognate with the 'phu-' of Greek 'phule', and that this was subdividing the Greek polis into three phulai.

In 242–240 BC, the Tribal Assembly (comitia tributa) in the Roman Republic was organized in 35 Tribes (four "Urban Tribes" and 31 "Rural Tribes"). The Latin word as used in the Bible translates as Greek phyle "race, tribe, clan" and ultimately the Hebrew or "sceptre". In the historical sense, "tribe," "race" and "clan" can be used interchangeably.

The term's origin might be found with the Latin word for three, tres. The dative and ablative case forms of this word are both tribus. The word tribus could therefore mean "from the three" or "for the three."