A
sept is an English word for a division of a family, especially of a
Scottish or
Irish family. The word may derive from the
Latin saeptum, meaning "enclosure" or "fold", or via an alteration of "sect". The term is used in both Ireland and
Scotland, where it may be translated as
sliocht, meaning "progeny" or "seed", which may indicate the descendants of a person (for example,
Sliocht Brian Mac Diarmada, "the descendant of Brian MacDermott").