Other forms: septs
A sept is a branch of a family, or a small place of worship. The septs of the clan, a sept of the Macdonalds, the village sept.
The family sense is Irish and Scottish: a sept is a group within a clan, often bearing a different surname while claiming the same descent. The word is probably a corruption of sect, pulled towards the Latin for an enclosure.
1nounseptA branch of a family or clan.
“Each Scottish clan had several septs, smaller families that followed the same chief.”
sept is a branch, or a chapel.
Probably a corruption of sect, influenced by Latin saeptum, an enclosure or fence.
Latin
saeptum — fence, enclosure
English, today
sept
A corruption of sect, influenced by Latin saeptum (“fence, enclosure”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA