endogamous

[ 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.

From New York Times

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

From New York Times

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

From BBC

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg