- family (n.)
- c.1400, "servants of a household," from Latin familia "family servants, domestics;" also "members of a household," including relatives and servants, from famulus "servant," of unknown origin. Ancestral sense is from early 15c.; "household" sense recorded in English from 1540s; main modern sense of "those connected by blood" (whether living together or not) is first attested 1660s.
Replaced Old English hiwscipe. As an adjective meaning "suitable for a family," by 1807. Buzzword family values first recorded 1966. Phrase in a family way "pregnant" is from 1796. Family circle is 1809; family man, one devoted to wife and children, is 1856 (earlier it meant "thief," 1788, from family in a slang sense of "the fraternity of thieves").