Etymology

matrilineal

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Today it means: Tracing descent only through female ancestors. Full definition →

English lineal ← Latin māter ← Proto-Italic *mātēr
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*méh₂tēr
  2. Proto-Italic*mātēr
  3. Latinmāter
  4. Englishmatri-
  5. Englishlineal
  6. English todaymatrilineal

From matri- + lineal. Coined by British government anthropologist Northcote Whitridge Thomas in 1904 along with patrilineal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.