clan (English)

Where does "clan" come from?

The English noun 'clan' traveled through a remarkable chain of Celtic languages before reaching English[1]. It descends from Irish 'clann' and Scottish Gaelic 'clann', which both trace back to Old Irish 'cland'[1]. This Old Irish form was borrowed from Old Welsh 'plant', which itself came from Latin 'planta' meaning 'shoot, offspring'[1]. The Latin term ultimately connects to deep Indo-European roots[5].

Open questions

• The ultimate derivation of Latin planta from Proto-Indo-European involves multiple competing reconstructions. [5]

Full etymology tree

• clan (English), 'A group of people all descended from a common ancestor, in fact or belief, especially when the exact genealogies are not known.'
  • borrowed clann (Irish), 'children'
    • inherited clann (Middle Irish), 'offspring'
      • inherited cland (Old Irish), 'children'
        • borrowed plant (Old Welsh), 'children'
          • borrowed planta (Latin), 'any vegetable production that serves to propagate the species; a sprout, shoot, twig, sprig, sucker, graft, scion, slip, cutting'
  • borrowed clann (Scottish Gaelic), 'children, offspring, progeny'
    • inherited clann (Middle Irish), 'offspring'
      • inherited cland (Old Irish), 'children'
        • borrowed plant (Old Welsh), 'children'
          • borrowed planta (Latin), 'any vegetable production that serves to propagate the species; a sprout, shoot, twig, sprig, sucker, graft, scion, slip, cutting'

Ancestors

• clann (Irish)
• clann (Scottish Gaelic)
• cland (Old Irish)
• plant (Old Welsh)
• planta (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• plant (English)
• planta (English)

Descendants and derived words

• clan (Catalan)
• klan (Danish)
• clan (Dutch)
• clan control (English)
• clan endogamy (English)
• clanfellow (English)
• clanless (English)
• clan mate (English)
• clanmate (English)
• clannish (English)
• clannism (English)
• clannist (English)

Related words

• clan (English)

Sources

1. clan (English) - Wiktionary
2. plant (Old Welsh) - Wiktionary
3. clann (Irish) - Wiktionary
4. clann (Scottish Gaelic) - Wiktionary
5. planta (Latin) - Wiktionary
6. cland (Old Irish) - Wiktionary
7. clann (Middle Irish) - Wiktionary
8. pleh₂- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris