societate

Forms

societate f (plural societăți)^[1] Older texts write soțietate: „am lucrat cu cuget d-a fi spre folosul soțietății” “I worked with the intention of being of use to society” (Pleșoianu).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French société and directly borrowed from Latin societās (“fellowship, association”), as DEX and MDA2 give it.^[4][3] MDA2, DN and the DLR add Italian società.^[4][3][5][2] Wiktionary takes the Latin word through French, and Tiktin gives French and New Latin.^[1][6] The Latin noun is formed from socius (“companion, ally”) with the suffix -tās.^[7][1] The French word was borrowed from Latin about 1165.^[8]

Graur places it in the family of sequor (“to follow”), to which the Latin word for “companion” belongs with a different vowel grade.^[9] Romanian inherited soț from that Latin word.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a calendar of 1733, which calls a year good for settling down and for soțietate “company, living together”.^[3][2] Tiktin dates his first record to 1783.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the word, mostly as soțietate, meant human society as a whole, held together by laws: an act of 1817 says that laws are needed to constitute the society of man.^[2] Negulici in 1848 lists both the gathering of people united by nature and laws and the union of persons for a common interest, a company or association.^[10] Costinescu in 1870 adds social life in a town and înalta societate “high society”.^[11] Barcianu in 1886 has societate de negoț “trading company” and societatea civilă.^[12] Scriban and Șăineanu apply it to animals living together, such as bees and ants.^[13][14] The phrase societate de consum “consumer society” follows French société de consommation.^[15]

Timeline

• 1733 – soțietate “company” in a calendar, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1783 – Tiktin's first record.^[6]
• 1817 – “society of man”, in a document in the Uricariul.^[2]
• 1848 – “association, company” in Negulici.^[10]
• 1870 – înalta societate “high society” in Costinescu.^[11]
• 1886 – societate de negoț “trading company” in Barcianu.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. society: all the people who live together, linked by economic relations; the system of relations between them, a social order.^[4][3]
2. A small circle of people of high rank or wealth: înalta societate “high society”.^[4]
3. An association of people formed for a scientific, literary, sporting or other purpose.^[4][16]
4. (commerce) A company formed by investing capital to share the profits: societate pe acțiuni “joint-stock company”.^[4]
5. A group of people who spend time together; company in the social sense: în societate “among people, in company”.^[4][3]

Related words

• soț
• Latin societās

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. societate
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 923
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1029
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. societate
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. societate
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. societās
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. société
9. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 90
10. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. societate
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 529
12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 594
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1217
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 600
15. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. societate
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. societate