society

Pronunciation

• IPA: /səˈsaɪ.ə.ti/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French societé,^[2][3] from Old French societe (“company”),^[4][5] and probably also directly from Latin societās (“fellowship, association, alliance”),^[2] from socius (“companion, ally”),^[4][2][6] the source of social.^[2][5] Etymonline traces socius to Proto-Indo-European *sekw- (“to follow”).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Companionship, friendly association with others: 1531, in Elyot's Boke Named the Governour.^[2][3][8]

Semantic evolution

An association of people for a common purpose, a club, is recorded before 1548,^[2] or from the 1540s.^[4][9] The state of living together in a community, with its customs and organization, is from 1533,^[9] and the aggregate of people living in an ordered community from the 1630s^[4] or 1639.^[8] The sense “the more cultivated or fashionable part of a community” is by 1823.^[4] The adjective use, as in society wedding, is from 1693 in Merriam-Webster.^[3] The Society Islands were named in 1769 by Cook in honour of the Royal Society, which financed his voyage.^[4] In Scotland, the Society people were the Cameronians.^[10]

Timeline

• 1531 – companionship (Elyot).^[2][8]
• 1533 – life in an organized community.^[9]
• before 1548 – an association, club.^[2]
• 1639 – the people of a community.^[8]
• 1769 – the Society Islands named.^[4]
• 1823 – fashionable society.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The totality of social relationships among human beings; people living together as a community.
2. A group of people distinguished by shared institutions and a common culture.
3. An organization of people with a common interest or purpose; an association.
4. The rich and fashionable class of a community.
5. Companionship, company.

Word family

• societyless
• intersociety
• nonsociety
• subsociety
• undersociety
• societal
• tract society
• benefit society

Related words

• social
• sociable
• associate
• sequel
• sect

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)