endogamous

Sometimes en·do·gam·ic

[en-dog-uh-muhs]

adjective

1. of or relating to the practice of allowing marriage only within a specific tribe, caste, ethnic or religious group, or other social unit.

   The Bosnian War restricted social relations between different ethnic groups, intensifying endogamous practices in some villages.

Word History and Origins

Origin of endogamous¹

First recorded in 1860–65; endo- ( def. ) + -gamous ( def. ); coined in by Scottish anthropologist and ethnologist John Ferguson McLennan (1827–1881)

Example Sentences

Race appears to open a chasm in one of the relationships, but it turns out that no union — interracial or endogamous, fraternal or romantic — is safe.

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In an endogamous group, however, it’s more likely that two individuals carry the same mutation from a common founder.

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This, he said, was also "the secret of endogamous marriage".

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This sect counts numerous adherents in southern India; the Census Report of 1901 recording nearly a million and a half, including some 70 or 80 different, mostly endogamous, castes.

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The local tribe is neither exogamous nor endogamous, any more than is an English county.

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