Family

sb. Forms: 5 famylye, (Sc. famyle), 5–6 famyll(e, 5–7 familie, 6 famelie, -ly, famuly, famylie, Sc. famell, 7 familly, 6– family. [ad. L. familia household, f. famulus servant.]

  † 1.  The servants of a house or establishment; the household. Obs. exc. in family of servants.

a. 1400[?].  Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.), 213. You are my desciples, and of my familie.

1641.  Disc. Pr. Henry, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), III. 522. His family … consisted of few less than five-hundred.

1707.  Sloane, Jamaica, I. 46. The Proprietor keeps a large Family for its Defence.

1722.  De Foe, Plague (1754), 10. I was a single Man, ’tis true, but I had a Family of Servants, who I kept at my Business, had a House, Shop, and Ware-houses fill’d with Goods.

1794.  Godwin, Cal. Williams, 39. Mr. Tyrrel … proposed … to take him into his family, and make him whipper-in to his hounds.

  † b.  The retinue of a nobleman or grandee. Obs.

1548.  Hall, Chron., 171 b. The Kyng, the Quene with all their familie, shortly folowed.

1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., 45. Na Prelat, Erie, nor Barron … sal ryde with ane greater familie (number) of men and hors.

  c.  The staff of a high military officer or (in India) state official.

1808.  Elphinstone, Let., 5 Sept., in Colebrooke’s Life, I. 185. Mr. Seton … waived his right to nominate my family.

1809.  Jas. Moore, Camp. Spain, 72. The Staff Officers of Sir John Moore’s family.

1856.  J. W. Cole, Mem. Brit. Gen. Penin. War, II. viii. 84. The officers of his family … fell in with the same humour.

  d.  Rom. Ant. A troop, school (of gladiators).

1863.  Whyte Melville, Gladiators, I. 62. You look as if you belonged to the family yourself.

  2.  The body of persons who live in one house or under one head, including parents, children, servants, etc.

1545.  Joye, Exp. Dan., iv. 48/1. I Nebucadnezar, happye and prosperouse in my familie.

1631.  Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber (Camden), 44. His family were himself and his wife and daughters, two mayds, and a man.

a. 1729.  S. Clarke, Serm. (1730), II. iii. 51. Representing the whole Universe as the House of God, framed and preserved by his Power; and all Orders of intelligent Beings, as the Family of God.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, ii. I am going to prayers with my family.

1859.  Jephson, Brittany, ii. 10. The contrast between our national character and that of the French is something strangely palpable: it is, in fact, the difference between people who live in society and people who live in the family.

  b.  Happy Family: a collection of birds and animals of different natures and propensities living together in harmony in one cage.

1844.  in P. T. Barnum, Sixty Years Recollections (1889), 120. [At Coventry] we visited an exhibition called the ‘Happy Family.’

1890.  Evening News, 4 Dec., 4/5. He was … on his way home with his ‘Happy Family.’

  3.  The group of persons consisting of the parents and their children, whether actually living together or not; in wider sense, the unity formed by those who are nearly connected by blood or affinity. Holy Family: see quot. 1875.

1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 216.

1796.  H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature (1799), III. 589. We pass in succession through the love of our family, of our tribe, of our country, before we are instructed to love Mankind.

1829.  Jas. Mill, Hum. Mind (1869), II. xxii. 218. The group which consists of a Father, Mother and Children, is called a Family.

1875.  Tyrwhitt, in Dict. Chr. Antiq., I. 661. Family—The Holy. The subject which bears this title in modern art is generally a group consisting of the Virgin Mother, bearing the Sacred Infant, of St. Joseph, and frequently of the younger St. John Baptist and occasionally of St. Elizabeth.

  b.  A person’s children regarded collectively.

1732.  Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 382.

1876.  Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., III. vii. 96. ‘I’m a man with a long fambly, Squire.’

Mod.  He has a large family.

  4.  Those descended or claiming descent from a common ancestor; a house, kindred, lineage.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. iv. 304. Amang his Kyn and his Famyle.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XI. viii. 136. The famell and kynrent of Volsca.

1581.  J. Merbecke, A Booke of Notes and Common places, 708. Plinie affirmeth also, that in his time nigh vnto Rome, ther was a Famuly that would go vpon a great fire, & not be touched therewith.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., I. i. 65. Let vs assayle the Family of Yorke. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., II. ii. 129. Come they of Noble Family?

1671.  Milton, P. R., III. 168.

1734.  Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 213.

1804.  J. Grahame, The Sabbath (1839), 15/2. Every great merchant and money-dealer wishes to be the founder of what is called a family.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. ix. 268. The abbey of Coventry … still kept in the family.

  fig.  1775.  Sheridan, Duenna, II. iii. The beggars are a very ancient family in most kingdoms; but never in great repute.

  b.  (Man, woman, etc.) of family: of noble or gentle descent.

a. 1763.  Shenstone, Ess., External Figure, Wks. 1764, II. 60. If dress be only allowable to persons of family, it may then be considered as a sort of family-livery, and Jack the groom may with equal justice pride himself upon the gawdy wardrobe his master gives him.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 32. He … married a beautiful English-woman of family.

1777.  W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., lx. The cavalry of Spain is composed of three troops of guardias de corps, one Spanish, one Italian, and one Flemish, each troop consisting of 200 men, who are all men of family.

1810.  Bentham, The Elements of the Art of Packing (1821), 146. These are low people—people who cannot say their catechism … people of no ‘family.’

  c.  In wider sense: A race; a people or group of peoples assumed to be descended from a common stock.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 25.

1842.  Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 468. The Tamanacs, who belong to the same family, live on the right bank of the Orinoco: they were formerly powerful, but are now reduced to a small number.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng. (ed. 5), I. i. 18. By the mixture of three branches of the great Teutonic family with each other.

  5.  transf. and fig. (with mixed notion of 3 and 4). A brotherhood or group of individuals or nations bound together by political or religious ties.

1611.  Bible, Eph. iii. 15. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heauen and earth is named.

1650–3.  Dissert. de Pace, in Phenix (1708), II. 348. Of all the Familys and Societys of Christians, they are most hated.

1826.  E. Everett, Claims on Naples, Holland, and France, 3. As the states of Europe were, by the prevailing maxims of its policy, closely united in one family, a leading question of this kind, if not amicably settled, became the cause of a general war.

1875.  Manning, Mission H. Ghost, ix. 253. They [the apostles] subdued the cultivated Greeks, and the imperial Romans, and our barbarian forefathers into one family.

  6.  A group or assemblage of objects, connected together and distinguished from others by the possession of some common features or properties.

a. 1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 354. There be two Great Families of Things; You may terme them by seuerall Names; Sulphureous and Mercuriall.

1731.  Pope, Ep. Burlington, IV. 96.

1741.  Chambers’ Cycl., s.v. Curves, Family of Curves.

1796.  Hutton, Math. Dict., I. 353/1. Family of Curves, is an assemblage of several curves of different kinds, all defined by the same equation of an indeterminate degree; but differently, according to the diversity of their kind.

1813.  Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 457. The classification of simple minerals into families.

1875.  Fortnum, Maiolica, viii. 65. The varieties of pottery known under the names of Persian, Damascus, Rhodian, and Lindus wares, composing a large family, may be classified as siliceous or glass-glazed wares.

1875.  Whitney, Life Lang., xii. 228. We have called a certain body of languages a family, the Indo-European.

  b.  In modern scientific classification: A group of allied genera. (Usually, a ‘family’ is a subdivision of an ‘order’; but in the ‘natural system’ of botanical classification the two words are, so far as cotyledonous plants are concerned, synonymous: English botanists chiefly using ‘order,’ while in French Jussieu’s term famille is retained.)

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. The bream and the herring, though very different in genus, may yet be brought into the same Family.

1831.  J. Davies, Manual Mat. Med., 223. Rest-harrow, of the family Leguminosæ.

1858.  Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 19. Several genera may, in like manner, be united into a family; the various members of which have a common resemblance, though with many subordinate differences.

1880.  Gray, Struct. Bot., ix. § 1. 325. FAMILY in botany is synonymous with order: at least natural orders and families (however distinguished in zoology) have always in botany been interchangeable terms, and will probably so continue.

1881.  Mivart, in Nature, No. 615. 337. The order Lacertilia is made up of a certain number of large groups, each of which is called a family, which family is again composed of genera.

  7.  Family of love: a sect which originated in Holland, and gained many adherents in England in the 16th and 17th c.; they held that religion consisted chiefly in the exercise of love, and that absolute obedience was due to all established governments, however tyrannical.

1579.  J. Knewstub (title), A Computation of monstrous and horrible heresies … embraced of a number, who call themselves the Familie of Love.

1606.  Sir G. Goosecappe, II. i., in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 38. You are either of the familie of Love, or of no religion at all.

1645–62.  Pagitt, Heresiogr. (ed. 6), 105. This sect of the family of love … are so called because … their love is so great that they may join any congregation.

1667.  H. More, Divine Dialogues, Schol. (1713), 568. Being lately informed by an Elder of the Family … that they of their Family that were regenerated by this Word, became Christs the same way that Jesus was Christ.

  8.  slang. The thieving fraternity. See 11 -man.

1749.  R. Goadby, The Life and Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, ‘The Oath of the Canting Crew.’

1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. Thieves, sharpers, and all others who get their living upon the cross, are comprehended under the title of ‘The Family.’

1838.  Glascock, Land Sharks, II. 100. This house … was a favourite resort of the Family.

  II.  attrib. (adj.) and Comb.

  9.  Simple attrib., passing into an adj. a. Of or pertaining to the family or household; domestic.

1602.  Fulbecke, Pandectes, 47. Such familie-seruantes or retinue as to be agreeable … to his dignitie.

1641.  Hinde, J. Bruen, xxi. 66. This Gentleman knew right well, that family exercises were the very goads and spurs unto godlinesse, the life and sinnews of grace, and religion, the bonds and cords of love, drawing or leading to perfection.

1685.  Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. vi. 5. Publick Church Prayer, and Family-Prayer are as great duties as secret Prayer.

1694.  F. Bragge, Practical Discourses upon the Parables of Our Blessed Saviour, xiii. 439. The Returns of these Family-Devotions at the Beginning and Close of the Day, ought not without good Reason to be omitted.

1709.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4522/2. That Coach was preceded by his Majesty’s Family-Coaches.

a. 1732.  T. Boston, Crook in Lot (1805), 23. Such was the crook made in David’s lot, through his family-disorders.

1768.  Woman of Honor, II. 178. If this sordid … family-spirit does not soon meet with an effectual check.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), II. 157. The defendant, as it was a family affair, submitted to be redeemed, notwithstanding the length of time.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 329, The Republic, V. Tell us something about their family life—how they would bring children into the world, and rear them when they had arrived, and in general, what is the nature of this community of women and children.

  b.  In tradesmen’s signs, advertisements, and the like; Family butcher, grocer, druggist, etc.: originally one who supplies commodities for household use, as opposed, e.g., to one who supplies them to ships or the army. Family hotel: one which claims to be especially for the reception of families.

  c.  Of or pertaining to a certain family, lineage, or kindred.

a. 1715.  Wycherley, Ess. agst. Pride & Ambit. As if nobility consisted alone in being entitled to … have the family plate graved with a coat of arms.

1769.  Gray, Let., Poems (1775), 365. Ridale-hall, the family-seat of Sir Michael Fleming.

1773.  Melmoth, Cato, Remarks, 171. Securing to the heir … a sufficient part of the family-estate to support his rank and station.

1803.  T. Beddoes, Hygëia, x. 50. A family disposition to insanity.

1818.  Art Preserv. Feet, 200. It frequently happens that nature, sometimes accidental causes, produce what has been termed a family toe, partly in consequence of its being hereditary, partly from the fact of two toes being joined together in a family way, through the whole extent of the joints nearest to the foot.

  10.  Phrases, a. In a (or † the) family way: in a domestic manner; with the freedom of members of the same family; without ceremony. Also † In family (= F. en familie).

1709.  Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 136, 21 Feb., ¶ 1. His Wife is the Daughter of an honest House, ever bred in a Family-Way.

1768.  Woman of Honor, I. 87. Dining together, in family.

1784.  Lett. to Honoria & Marianne, II. 64. She would … stay some time with them, quite in the family way.

1789.  G. Keate, Pelew Isl., 107. At the house of this Chief they were received quite in a family way.

a. 1809.  J. Palmer, Like Master like Man (1811), I. 193. You’ll find all in the family way.

1854.  J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), II. xii. 214. We should have discussed our interests in a family way.

1859.  Thackeray, Virgin., II. x. 74. Why don’t we ask him and his ladies to come over in a family way and dine with some other plain country gentlefolks?

  b.  (To be) in the family way: pregnant.

1796.  Mrs. E. Parsons, Myst. Warn., I. 90. The Countess was again in the family way.

1840.  Lady C. Bury, Hist. of Flirt, xxvi. Esther is in the family-way.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 62, The Republic, Introduction. The wives of our guardians will have a fine easy time when they are in the family way.

  11.  Special Comb.: family Bible, a large copy of the Bible for use at family prayers (its fly-leaves often contain a ‘family register’ or record of the birth of children, etc.); family-boat (see quot. 1883); family circle, the company of persons and their children, and other relatives and friends, who are inmates in the household; family coach, a large closed carriage capable of containing a whole family; also, a certain game of forfeits, in which a story of the adventures of a ‘family coach’ is related; family-compact, a treaty made in the eighteenth century between the Bourbon dynasties of France, Spain and the Two Sicilies for common action, esp. against England and Austria; family-council, a meeting of the members of a family to decide questions relating to their common interest; spec. see family-meeting; family-disease (see quot.); family-government, (a) the government of a family; (b) the system in which each family stands alone as a political unit; family-head (see quot.); family-likeness, a resemblance such as may be looked for in members of the same family; also fig.; family-living, a benefice in the gift of the head of the family; † family-lovist [f. family of love (see 7) + -IST], = FAMILIST 3; family-man, a man with a family; also (a) one who leads a domestic or homely life; (b) slang a thief; also a ‘fence’ (cf. sense 8); family-meeting, in Louisiana and Quebec, a council of at least five relations that meets before a public notary to give advice concerning a minor or other person; family-picture, (a) a painting representing a family; (b) a picture handed down as an heirloom; family-piece, (a) a composition relating to the doings of a family; (b) = prec. (a); family-tree, a genealogical tree.

1781.  Johnson, Letter to Dr. Patten, 25 Sept. This Lexicon of Antiquities … might become a concomitant to the *Family Bible.

1822.  J. Flint, Letters from America, vi. 73. The craft, called *family boats, are square arks, nine or ten feet wide, and varying in length as occasion may require.

1883.  W. C. Russell, Sailors’ Lang., Family boats.—The name given to smacks worked by members of one family.

1809.  H. More, Cœlebs, I. 347. Being agreeable … in one’s own *family circle.

1852.  E. Warner, Wide W. World, 82. They played the Old *Family Coach.

1761.  Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 52/2. The only reply was, that the King of Spain had thought proper to renew his *family compacts.

1884.  Syd. Soc. Lex., *Family diseases, diseases proceeding from heredity.

1715.  De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. v. (1841), I. 106. We must set up a *family-government entirely new: we must be angry now at what we were pleased at before; and pleased now with what we were angry at before.

1803.  Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), I. 29/2. In politics, they appear to have scarcely advanced beyond family-government.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk. *Family-head, when the stem was surmounted with several full-length figures.

1824.  Medwin, Convers. Byron (1832), I. 94. In his women … there is little *family-likeness.

1883.  Clodd, in Knowl., 24 Aug., 115/1. The family likeness of those Indian folk-tales to those [European ones] given above.

1798.  Jane Austen, Northang. Abb. (1833), II. vii. 144. It is a *family living.

1883.  Reade, ‘There’s Many a Slip ’Twixt the Cup and the Lip,’ in Harper’s Mag., LXVIII., Dec., 132/2. Joe was ordained priest, took the family living.

1589.  Nashe, Martins Months Minde, To the Reader, Wks. 1883, I. 165. I meddle not here with the Anabaptists, *Famely louists, Machiauellists, nor Atheists.

1788.  G. A. Stevens, Adv. Speculist, I. 221. Gamesters, Gamblers or *Family-men.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Ability, Wks. (Bohn), II. 44. These private reserved mute family-men.

1846.  R. L. Snowden, Magistrate’s Assistant, 342. Thieves … Family men.

1859.  W. Collins, Q. of Hearts (1875), 17. I’m a family man, myself, with grown-up daughters of my own; and the natures of young women are well known to me.

1856.  Bouvier, Law Dict. U.S. (ed. 6). *Family-meetings. Family councils, or family meetings in Louisiana, are meetings of at least five relations, or in default of relations of minors or other persons on whose interest they are called upon to deliberate, then of the friends of such minors or other persons.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. 147. The *family-picture of the consul Mejer.

1712.  Hughes, Spect., No. 525, 1 Nov., ¶ 8. One of the most agreeable *family pieces of this kind I have ever met with.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), II. 192. Mr. Willett … has a small family-piece of Dr. Hibbard, physician, his wife and five children.

1826.  Scott, Provinc. Antiq., Seton Chapel. It is a family-piece, comprehending the Lord Seton, his lady, and four children, painted … by Sir A. More.

1864.  Thackeray, D. Duval, i. (1869), 1. I once drew a fine *family tree of my ancestors.