sorority

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin sorōritās (“sisterhood”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin soror (“sister”),^[2][3][7][5] which is related to sister.^[3][7][4] The OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow either the Medieval Latin noun or a formation from the Latin noun with the suffix -ity, on the pattern of fraternity,^[8][9] and the OED compares the obsolete French sororité, recorded by Cotgrave in 1611.^[8] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *swesor- (“sister”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A body of women joined for a common purpose, especially a devotional one: 1532, in Sir Thomas More's Confutation of Barnes.^[8][6][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1530s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1525–35.^[10]

Semantic evolution

For more than three centuries the word meant a sisterhood in general, often a religious one,^[8][11] and in the United States it was also used for the women of a church congregation, a sense now obsolete.^[8] The modern sense, a women's society at a college or university, is American: Etymonline finds it by 1887,^[3] while the OED's and Barnhart's first record is from 1900, in Harper's Magazine.^[8][6] The older general sense is now rare,^[11] and Collins labels the college sense chiefly American.^[5] Merriam-Webster contrasts the word with fraternity.^[4]

Timeline

• 1532 – a society of women joined for a common, especially religious, purpose.^[8][6]
• 1887 – a women's society at a college, by this date in Etymonline.^[3] The OED's and Barnhart's first record is from 1900.^[8][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A social club or society for women students at a college or university, chiefly in the United States: She joined a sorority in her first year.^[5][4][8]
2. A sisterhood; a group of women joined for a common purpose, especially a religious one (now rare).^[4][11][8]

Related words

• sister
• fraternity
• sororal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press