[a. Gaelic clann family, stock, race, OIrish cland, clann, app. not originally a Celtic word, but a. L. planta sprout, shoot, scion, slip (cf. stirps stock, stem, race). Goidelic substituted k for p, as caisg, corcur, L. pascha, purpur.
1595. Duncan, App. Etymol., Stirps, the stok of a tree, or a clanne.
1. A number of persons claiming descent from a common ancestor, and associated together; ? tribe.
a. prop. Applied to those of the Highlands of Scotland; extended also to Lowland Scottish families, esp. in the Border country, where a somewhat similar social system prevailed.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., XI. xvii. 9 (Jam.). Tha thre score ware clannys twa, Clahynne Qwhewyl and Clachin Yha.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 59. Efter him suld neuir ane spring or spreid Of all his clan.
1649. Milton, Tenure Kings, 28. Old customes yet among the High-landers in choosing the head of thir Clanns, or Families.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. ii. 73/78. The Inward Man, And Outward, like a Clan, and Clan, Have always been at Daggers-drawing.
1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5390/2. The Clans behave themselves with great Insolence.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, I. x. Her lover, ’gainst her father’s clan, With Carr in arms had stood.
Mod. ‘The Gathering of the Clans.’
b. Rarely used of the Irish.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. Irel., 365. The poor … seem rather to obey their grandees, old landlords, and the heads of their septes and clans than God.
c. Extended to similar tribal groups in other countries.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xiii. 5. Clausus … Fra quham the clan and pepile Claudyane Is cummin.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, V. (1822), 449. Thare wes sindry clannis of thare linage, specialie al the landis beyound the wattir of Padus.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 510. One Nation or Clan selling others that are their Enemies.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 57. Upon the Brook Kishon, lay encamped another Clan of the Arabs.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. vi. 164. These tribes and clans were … regarded more as natural than as political associations.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. § 6. 103. Among both Australians and Indians a man is forbidden to marry in his own clan.
2. contemptuously. A collection of people having common attributes; a fraternity, party, ‘set,’ ‘lot.’
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. Introd. 108. For heir ar kingis and mony nobillis stout, And nane of thaim pertenand to his clan.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, IV. 5752. With Iudas sall compeir one clan Off fals Tratouris.
1688. Vox Cleri pro Rege, 2. A certain Clann of men, who … cannot forbear being Clamorous.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 130. Your literary men, and your politicians, and so do the whole clan of the enlightened among us, essentially differ in these points.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Berkeley B., I. iii. 47. They are all alike—the whole clan of them.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Clan, a multitude or set of people. ‘A clan o’ bairns,’ a crowd of children.
3. poet. of animals, plants, and things inanimate.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 901. For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four Champions fierce Strive here for Maistrie, and to Battel bring Thir embryon Atoms … in their several Clanns.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 133. Forth rush the jolly Clan [hounds].
1736. H. Brooke, Univ. Beauty, VI. 169, in Wks. 1792, II. 121 (R.).
| A youthful empress guides their airy clan, | |
| And wheels and shoots illustrious from the van. |
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. iii. One green lear, the last of its clan.
1887. Stevenson, Underwoods, II. ii. A clan o’ roosty craws Cangle thegither.
4. attrib. and Comb., as clan-feeling, -gathering, -name, -spirit, -system, -tartan, etc.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, vi. We were to hear no more of hunting, or hosting, or clan-gatherings.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. xi. (1875), 272. A proposition transcending these clan-limits which science … recognizes.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., x. 280. The Australians … use the clan-name as a sort of surname.
1883. G. Brodrick, in 19th Cent., Nov., 912. The survival of the old clan-spirit.
1887. Athenæum, 12 March, 345/3. To the clan system, indeed, to ‘chiefery,’ and to ‘Celtic feudalism,’ the duke [of Argyll] ascribes all the evils of the Highlands.
1888. Daily News, 17 Dec., 2/7. A moderate demand is experienced for American, antique, and clan laces, which are made on curtain machines.
