subculture

Etymology

It is formed from English sub- + culture,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} also spelled with a hyphen.^[3] The OED compares the slightly earlier adjective subcultural for the social sense.^[2] Culture is from Latin cultūra (“cultivation, agriculture; care”), from the past participle stem of colō (“to tend, to till, to cultivate”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In biology, a culture made by transferring microorganisms or cells from an existing culture to a fresh medium: 1885, in the British Medical Journal.^[2][4] Etymonline dates this use to 1878,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1895–1900.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word began in bacteriology, where culture had come to mean the growing of microorganisms,^[3][2] and the verb, to make a subculture of, followed in 1896.^[2][4] In 1914 the noun was applied, first in sociology and cultural anthropology, to a group within a society whose beliefs or interests set it apart from the wider culture,^[2] a use Etymonline dates to 1922.^[3] The adjective subcultural, relating to such a group, is recorded slightly earlier, from 1909.^[2]

Timeline

• 1885 – in biology, a culture taken from an earlier culture.^[2][4]
• 1896 – verb, to make a subculture of.^[2]
• 1914 – a distinct group within a society or culture.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A group within a society whose beliefs, interests or way of life set it apart from the larger culture: the skateboarding subculture of the 1980s.^[4][7][2]
2. (biology) A culture of microorganisms or cells grown from another culture, or the making of one.^[4][7][2]

Verb

1. (biology) To grow bacteria or cells anew on a fresh medium from an older culture.^[4][7][2]

Word family

• subcultural
• subculturally

Related words

• culture
• counterculture
• cultivate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins