sociedad

Forms

sociedad f (plural sociedades)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin societās (“partnership, fellowship, association”), a learned word first found in Berceo.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed from socius (“companion, partner”) with the suffix -tās.^[5][1][6] Wiktionary adds that its senses “company” and “association” were borrowed later.^[1] The French word société was likewise taken from Latin, about 1165.^[7]

Popular outcomes of the Latin word are rare: Italian soccita “livestock lease” in Italian dialects and Old French soistié “company; lease”.^[8][1]

The Latin noun for “companion” goes back to Proto-Italic *sokjo- and Proto-Indo-European *sokʷ-(h₂)-i-o- (“companion”); de Vaan compares Sanskrit and Avestan words for “friend” and Old English secg (“man, warrior”) and Old Norse seggr, which go back to Proto-Germanic *sagjaz.^[9][1] Wiktionary traces the word further to *sekʷ- (“to follow”).^[1] The DHLF suggests that the Indo-European word meant a companion in war.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo uses the word in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a copy of the late 13th century) for a monastic community: the saint obeyed whatever the abbot, o prior o prepuesto de la socïedad “or the prior or provost of the community”, ordered.^[10][11] In Del sacrificio de la misa it is the fellowship of the saints: en la socïedad de los sanctos apóstolos “in the company of the holy apostles”.^[10] Medieval Latin societas had the same religious senses, a prayer brotherhood and membership of a religious community.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In 1385 Juan Fernández de Heredia uses soçiedat for a political alliance, Marius's.^[10] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 rendered Latin societas as compañía.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined sociedad as the company of rational beings and as a body of people joined to advance the arts and sciences, quoting Feijoo on the Paris Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London.^[14] The Academy added the trading company in 1817,^[15] Salvá recorded sociedad anónima and the new sociedad en comandita in 1846,^[16] and in 1869 the Academy defined it as a gathering of people, families, peoples or nations, with buena sociedad “polite society” and mala sociedad.^[17]

Today the DLE gives a community living under common rules, an association with a common purpose, a natural grouping of animals and a commercial company.^[4] The first record from the Americas is of 1579, in Mexico: the lords of Tlaxcala metieron en sociedad a los españoles “took the Spaniards into partnership”.^[18] The word passed into Tagalog as sosyedad.^[1]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the date Corominas gives for the first record, in Berceo.^[3][2]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, in a copy of the late 13th century.^[10][11]
• 1385 – soçiedat “alliance” in Juan Fernández de Heredia's Gran crónica de España, the first record in a manuscript of the work's own time.^[10]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses societas with compañía.^[13]
• 1579 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the learned society.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the trading company.^[15]
• 1846 – Salvá records sociedad anónima and sociedad en comandita.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin societas.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. society: the people, peoples or nations that live together under common rules: La sociedad cambia con cada generación.^[4][1]
2. An association of people, natural or agreed, organised to work for certain ends: una sociedad de amigos del teatro.^[4][20]
3. A natural grouping of some animals: Las hormigas forman sociedades complejas.^[4]
4. (commerce) A company or firm whose capital is made up of its members' contributions: Fundaron una sociedad para exportar vino.^[4][1]
5. alta sociedad, buena sociedad: high society, wealthy people whose manners are considered elegant and refined.^[4][1]
6. sociedad anónima: a company formed by shares, whose liability is limited to its capital.^[4][1]

Word family

• societario

Related words

• asociación
• social
• socio
• Latin societās
• French société

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 286
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. socio
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sociedad
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. sociedad
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sociedad
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
12. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
13. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. sociedad
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 133
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 808
16. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1007
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 718
18. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sociedad
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 983
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sociedad