From Latin 'familia' (household), from 'famulus' (servant, slave) — originally the entire household under a patriarch, not blood kin.
A group of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption, especially parents and their children; a household.
From Latin 'familia' (household, servants, estate), derived from 'famulus' (servant, slave). The Latin word originally referred not to blood relatives but to the entire household including enslaved people and servants under the authority of the 'pater familias.' The deeper origin of 'famulus' is debated: it may derive from Oscan 'famel' (servant) or possibly from a pre-Italic substrate language