Etymologically
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sorority

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /səˈrɒrɪti/[1]
  • US: /səˈrɔrəti/[1]

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]

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