GENS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Gens

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/dʒɛnz/ Listen

noun

Gens n. (pl. gentes) (Rom. Hist.)

A clan or family connection, embracing several families of the same stock, who had a common name and certain common religious rites; a subdivision of the Roman curia or tribe.

(Ethnol.) A minor subdivision of a tribe, among American aborigines. It includes those who have a common descent, and bear the same totem.

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Etymology of 'Gens'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gens" Quotes from Famous Books

... stand the rays of greatness; they are frightened out of their wits when kings and great men speak to them; they are awkward, ashamed, and do not know what nor how to answer; whereas, 'les honnetes gens' are not dazzled by superior rank: they know, and pay all the respect that is due to it; but they do it without being disconcerted; and can converse just as easily with a king as with any one of his ...

— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... say just behind her, "non, je connais ces gens-la, je vous promets... vraiment j'en ai peur...." Elsa responded with excited enquiries. They all trooped quietly in and the great ...

— Pointed Roofs - Pilgrimage, Volume 1 • Dorothy Richardson

... celle de faire rire les honnetes gens,' Moliere says; and the difficulty of the undertaking ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... Contemporains, redigee par une Societe de Gens de Lettres sous la direction de M. Ernest ...

— How to Form a Library, 2nd ed • H. B. Wheatley

... in Sanskrit or Siddhattha in Pali, meaning he who has achieved his object, but it is rarely used. Persons who are introduced in the Pitakas as addressing him directly either employ a title or call him Gotama (Sanskrit Gautama). This was the name of his gotra or gens and roughly corresponds to a surname, being less comprehensive than the clan name Sakya. The name Gotama is applied in the Pitakas to other Sakyas such as the Buddha's father and his cousin Ananda. It is said to be still in use ...

— Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot

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