sisterhood

Etymology

It is formed from English sister + -hood.^[2][3][4][5] In Middle English it was susterhede,^[6][3] and Gower wrote it sosterhode or sosterhiede;^[7][6] Merriam-Webster derives the Middle English word from soster (“sister”) and -hode (“-hood”).^[8] The OED compares the older sisterhead.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being a sister, a sisterly relationship: before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, where Medea's gift to Creusa is sent "for sosterhode".^[6][2] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century, already also in figurative use.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Gower also used the word for the tie between sisters-in-law, sosterhode of mariage.^[6] A society of sisters, especially a community of nuns, is first found in a Latin–English dictionary of about 1450, which glosses sororitas as a systerhede;^[6] Etymonline dates this sense to the mid 15th century,^[3] while the OED's first quotation for a community of women living a religious or charitable life is from about 1540, in a translation of Erasmus.^[2] From 1586 it was used of any group of women sharing an interest or calling,^[2][3] and after 1616 also figuratively of things alike as sisters, such as the planets.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) gave "the office or duty of a sister", "a set of sisters" and "a number of women of the same order".^[9] The feminist sense of solidarity among women is recorded from 1914, in an American magazine,^[2] and by extension the sisterhood came to mean women united in that cause.^[2][8][10]

Timeline

• before 1393 – the state of being a sister; also the relation of sisters-in-law.^[6][2]
• c. 1450 – a community of nuns.^[6]
• 1586 – a group of women with a shared interest or characteristic.^[2]
• 1616 – figuratively, a group of things likened to sisters.^[2]
• 1914 – feminist solidarity among women.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The relationship between sisters; the state of being a sister.^[11][8][10]
2. A community or society of women, especially a religious one such as an order of nuns: She left the sisterhood after ten years.^[11][8][10]
3. A group of women linked by a common interest, trade or characteristic.^[12][8][2]
4. A feeling of kinship and solidarity among women, especially in the women's movement: The rally was a celebration of sisterhood.^{[11][12][10][2]}
5. (figurative) A group of things alike as sisters.^[2][4]

Related words

• sister
• -hood

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press