matrilinear en · ADJ
Etymology
From matri- + linear.
Meanings
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(alt-of, alternative, not-comparable) Alternative form of matrilineal.
alt of matrilineal
Among peoples of unmixed Hellenic stock indisputable instances of mother-right are infrequent in historical times. […] So far as Athens is concerned, the evidence making for the survival, either in memory or in fact, of a primitive matrilinear basis of society rests on the statement of Varro […]
1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. Orestea. III: Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, pages 225-226: