enate

plural enates

1. A relative whose relation is traced only through female members of the family.

   A great-grandmother is an enate if she is your mother’s mother's mother.

   1 more example

   Similarly, since the wearing of a sawat is importantly informed by matrilineal group membership — an enate of the deceased cannot wear a sawat — it would be an error to assume that matrilineal group membership is necessarily salient in explaining the behavior of a social actor.

   2000, Alexander H. Bolyanatz, Mortuary Feasting on New Ireland: The Activation of Matriliny Among the Sursurunga, page 86

2. Any maternal female relative.

comparative more enate · superlative most enate

1. Related to someone by female connections.
2. Related on the maternal side of the family.
3. human sciencesHaving identical grammatical structure (but with elements that are semantically different).
4. Growing out.