| 释义 |
social, a. and n.|ˈsəʊʃəl|
Also 6 Sc. sociale, 7 sociall.
[a. F. social, -ale (14th cent. in Godef.; = Sp., Pg. social, It. sociale), or ad. L. sociālis, f. socius friend, companion, associate.]
A. adj.
†1. Capable of being associated or united to others. Obs.—1
1562Winȝet Last Blast Tromp. Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 45 The proude schismatikis and obstinat heretikis, na wayis sociale to the companie of Christiane Catholiks.
†2. Associated, allied, combined. Obs.
1620T. Granger Div. Logike 20 The former is called the Sole, solitary,..absolute Cause: the latter sociall Causes. 1645Hammond View Infallib. 64 'Tis strange you should couple them together as so sociall things which are so distant and separable. 1686Plot Staffordsh. ii. 80 There may be subjoyned another social cause that may contribute not a little to the elevating Water above its own Level.
3. a. Of war: Occurring or taking place between allies or confederates. rare.
1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Wars 1, I Intend to Discourse the most famous Warre of our Times, and which may not improperly be called Sociall, or a Warre of Confederates. 1700Southerne Fate of Capua i. i, Is there a worthier than a social war?
b. spec. (with the). In Roman Hist., the war between Rome and the Italian allies, 90–89 b.c. In Greek Hist., the war between the Athenians and their confederates, 357–355 b.c.
(a)1765Blackstone Comm. I. 159 When, after the social war, all the burghers of Italy were admitted free citizens of Rome. 1842W. C. Taylor Anc. Hist. xv. §6 (ed. 3) 436 A much more dangerous war, called the Marsic, the Social, or the Italic, was provoked by the injustice with which the Romans treated their Italian allies.
(b)1788Lemprière Class. Dict., Chabrias, an Athenian general,..killed in the Social war. 1808Mitford Hist. Greece IV. xxxvi. 267 The War between the Athenians and their Allies, called the Confederate or Social War. 1838Thirlwall Greece V. xliii. 259 Philip seems to have kept aloof from the Social War.
4. a. Marked or characterized by mutual intercourse, friendliness, or geniality; enjoyed, taken, spent, etc., in company with others, esp. with those of a similar class or kindred interests.
social evening, an evening meeting of a club, society, etc., of the nature of an entertainment; and evening on which this is held; similarly social tea.
1667Milton P.L. viii. 429 Thou in thy secresie although alone, Best with thy self accompanied, seek'st not Social communication. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. vi. 157 While thus we spend the social Night. 1785Boswell Jrnl. Tour Hebr. 142 His benevolent, gay, social intercourse. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxvi, The spacious fire-places, where no mark of social cheer remained. 1810Sir A. Boswell Edinb. Poems (1871) 50 When met to drink a social cup of tea. 1848Dickens Dombey v, Mrs. Chick and Miss Tox were enjoying a social evening. 1857― Dorrit ii. xiv. 441 He took pains, on all social occasions, to draw Mr Sparkler out. 1864― Lett. (1880) II. 214 They want social rest and social recreation for themselves and their families. 1877Independent 8 Feb. 4/3 The social event of the season! 1887[see visit n. 1 a]. 1896W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) i. 3 On this social occasion it has seemed that what Agassiz stood for in the way of character and influence is the more fitting to commemorate. 1899J. London Let. 17 Apr. (1966) 28 So you grow a-weary of the social whirl. 1911G. S. Porter Harvester xvi. 342 Wait until afternoon, and pretend you are making a social call. 1915F. M. Hueffer Good Soldier iii. iv. 178 He would dine and pass the evening..at social functions of one kind or another. 1926Social tea [see bridge roll s.v. bridge n.2 c]. 1943G. Greene Ministry of Fear iii. ii. 193 Haven't we met—?.. On one of the doctor's social evenings. 1946L. P. Hartley Sixth Heaven iii. 67 We saw him chattering away... He loves the social round. 1958A. Huxley Let. 20 Oct. (1969) 855, I have been revolving in the social whirl—seeing everybody. 1959B. Bernardi Mugwe, Failing Prophet i. 6 Social intercourse between the main section of the Tharaka and the Thagichu has never been broken off. 1976Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 9 Dec. 12/7 Patients of St. Andrews Hospital, Thorpe, enjoyed a social evening in the Octagon Centre at the hospital. 1977P. Scott Staying On (1978) xiii. 204 In all the years they'd known one another they had never exchanged social visits. 1980Jewish Chron. 4 Jan. 9/3 Brighton and Hove Emunah held a social tea at the Talmud Torah hall of Hove Hebrew Congregation.
†b. Expressive of or proceeding from sympathy; sympathetic. Obs.
1726Pope Odyss. xvi. 236 The prince..Hung round his neck, while tears his cheek bedew; Nor less the father pour'd a social flood! 1745Collins Ode Death Col. Ross x, Where'er from time thou court'st relief, The Muse shall still, with social grief, Her gentlest promise keep.
c. Of, relating to, or connected with fashionable or leisured society (cf. society 3 c). See also social column, social register, sense 12 below.
1873Trollope Eustace Diamonds iii. lxxviii. 331 The police..had..succeeded in sending two scoundrels out of the social world, probably for life. 1894Harper's New Monthly Mag. Oct. 697/2 But who looked so far from their faces, so certain to reveal the types of all styles of the beauty of our theatrical and social queens? 1896M. Corelli Thelma II. ii. ii. 137 In the social world, Fashion, the capricious deity, must be followed. 1903A. Bennett Truth about Author vi. 80 The editor was enchanted with my social paragraphs. 1911M. Corelli Life Everlasting xi. 237 It was supposed then..that as I found myself the possessor of an income of between five and six thousand a year, I would naturally..enter upon what is called a social career. 1925Ladies' Home Jrnl. Apr. 163/3 After you married Jack Hollsworth you went into a sort of social eclipse and almost kept out of things entirely. 1930G. B. Shaw Apple Cart i. 39 The King's displeasure is still a sentence of social death within range of St James's Palace. 1938L. Bemelmans Life Class ii. v. 164 Their committee selected their dates..at the beginning of the season, but late enough to give them some knowledge of the social calendar. 1977G. Scott Hot Pursuit v. 51 Little country towns where the social calendar revolved gently around race meetings and the seasons.
5.
†a. United by some common tie. Obs.
1717Pope Iliad xi. 339 The social shades the same dark journey go. 1718Ibid. xvi. 1022 Patroclus yields to fear, Retires for succour to his social train.
b. Inclined or disposed to friendly intercourse or converse; sociable.
1729Pope On General Withers 8 Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove Thy Martial spirit, or thy Social love! 1776Paine Com. Sense (1791) 55 A few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active land⁓men in the common work of a ship. 1797–1805S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 339 Sir Edward was wandering, without one social bosom to confide a thought to, through..Sicily. 1816Jane Austen Emma ii, His own friendly and social disposition. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 168 Charles came forth from that school with social habits, with polite and engaging manners. 1878M. E. Braddon Eleanor's Vict. ii, He was very happy and social.
c. Consisting or composed of persons associated together in, or for the purpose of, friendly intercourse.
1792N. Webster in E. E. Ford Notes on Life of N. Webster (1912) I. 363 A number of Gentlemen meet at my house for the purpose of forming a social Club. 1817Coleridge Biographia Literaria II. xxii. 136 In the social circles of private life we often find a striking use of the latter put a stop to the general flow of conversation. 1843Mill Logic II. iv. v. 264 The accident that one of the words was used and not the other on a particular occasion or in a particular social circle. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 234 The contest went on in both Houses of Parliament, in every constituent body, in every social circle. 1866Month IV. 54 The social body at Balliol was strengthened between 1830 and 1840 by three important additions. 1872B. Jerrold London xix. 155 The [Covent Garden] piazzas..where a few noteworthy social clubs still linger. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 652 The club is strictly a ‘social’ one. 1935Burlington Mag. Apr. 161/2 All social circles allied to the Court. 1966J. Cleary High Commissioner ix. 185 He..belonged to none of the social clubs. He played golf..at a public course. 1977Evening Post (Nottingham) 24 Jan. 7/6 But the couple who lived there escaped with their lives—because just two hours earlier a neighbour had persuaded them to go with him to a local social club.
d. Of a room, a building, etc.: used for friendly intercourse or association. See also social centre, sense 12 below.
1889Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) I. xxii. 426 The ladies' saloon..according to American custom, was labelled ‘Social Hall’. 1975C. Potok In Beginning (1976) iv. 234 After the service we all went to the social hall downstairs and there was wine and whiskey and cake.
6. a. Living, or disposed to live, in companies or communities; desirous of enjoying the society or companionship of others.
1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. vii. 145 Man is a Social creature: that is, a single man, or family, cannot subsist, or not well, alone out of all Society. 1744Harris Three Treat. (1841) 62 Let this then be remembered,..that man by nature is truly a social animal. 1842Boston Quarterly Rev. 184 Man is a social Being. 1853Trench Proverbs 127 Man not being merely accidentally gregarious, but essentially social. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 279 In the use of the senses, as in his whole nature, man is a social being. 1966G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising i. 3 Yet the study of language can be regarded as central to man's study of himself, whether as an individual or as a social being.
b. Zool. Living together in more or less organized communities; belonging to a community of this kind.
1831Insect Miscellanies 412/1 Social leaf-mining caterpillars... Social wasps. 1840tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 599 The Apiariæ are either solitary or social in their habits. Ibid. 602 The terminal subgenus of Social Bees. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1860) 87 In social animals it [i.e. natural selection] will adapt the structure of each individual for the benefit of the community. 1874Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. (1879) 57 Bees, Wasps, Ants, and other Social Insects.
transf.1864–5Wood Homes without H. xxi. (1879) 411 We now come to the Social Habitations and give precedence to those which are constructed by Mammalia.
c. In specific names (see quots. and cf. sociable a. 1 b). social whale = pilot whale s.v. pilot n. 8.
1781Pennant Quad. II. 459 The Social Rat..inhabits the Caspian desert. 1801Shaw Gen. Zool. II. i. 93 The Social Mouse is a native of the Caspian deserts. 1850R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Africa (1902) 57/2 Many of them [trees] were inhabited by whole colonies of the social grosbeak. 1865H. D. Thoreau Cape Cod vii. 130 In the summer and fall sometimes, hundreds of blackfish (the Social Whale..)..are driven ashore. 1869Galaxy Aug. 173 The social-sparrow, alias ‘hair-bird’,..is the smallest of the sparrows. 1884Goode Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 11 Globicephalus svineval,..also called Black Whale, Social Whale.
d. Bot. Of plants: Growing in a wild state in patches or masses with other members of the same species, esp. so as to cover a large area.
1834M. Somerville Connex. Physical Sci. xxvii. 274 Very few social plants, such as grasses and heaths that cover large tracts of lands, are to be found between the tropics. 1855Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 268 One of the plants which the botanist terms social because never found growing singly, but always in numbers.
e. Of ascidians, etc.: Compound.
1860Chambers's Encycl. I. 466/2 In some kinds (Social Ascidians), the peduncles of a number of individuals are connected by a tubular stem. 1877Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. x. 610 In the compound or social Tunicata, many ascidiozooids..are united by a common test.
7. a. Pertaining, relating, or due to, connected with, etc., society as a natural or ordinary condition of human life.
In this use, social enters into a very large number of collocations, many of which have the quality of set phrases, but have not gained specialized meanings; examples are: social background, social barrier, social capacity, social climate, social code, social consciousness, social contact, social context, social duty, social fabric, social grace, social group, social hierarchy, social justice, social mix, social morality, social phenomenon, social prejudice, social problem, social question, social reason, social scale, social sympathy, social usefulness, social virtue, social welfare.
1695Locke Some Thoughts concerning Educ. (ed. 3) 191 Careful guard ought to be kept over them [sc. children]; and every least slip in this great social vertue taken notice of and rectified. a1704― Conduct of Understanding (1754) 164 We should love our neighbour as ourselves, is such a fundamental truth for the regulating human society, that, I think, by that alone, one might without difficulty, determine all the cases and doubts in social morality. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 16 The nature of man considered in his..social capacity leads him to a right behaviour in society. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 180 ⁋5 He that devotes himself to retired study naturally sinks from omission to forgetfulness of social duties. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 411 The social reason quickly recals him to personal interest. 1801M. Edgeworth Belinda (1833) I. xvi. 135 His social prejudices were such as..to supply the place of the power and habit of reasoning. 1814M. Birkbeck Journey through France 22 The labouring class here is certainly much higher, on the social scale, than with us. 1833J. S. Mill in Monthly Repos. VII. 801 The St. Simonians are, just now, the only association of public writers existing in the world who systematically stir up from the foundation all the great social questions. 1842Combe Digestion Pref. p. xviii, The degree to which its morbid derangements undermine health, happiness, and social usefulness. 1843Social phenomenon [see historical a. (n.) 2 c]. a1854J. S. Mill Draft Autobiogr. (1961) 173 The social problem of the future we considered to be, how to unite the greatest individual liberty of action with an equal ownership of all in the raw material of the globe & an equal participation of all in the benefits of combined labour. 1856Geo. Eliot in Westm. Rev. X. 70 The study of at least one social group—namely, the factory operatives. 1857Edin. Rev. CVI. 223 Goethe's early experiences at first led him to view the whole social fabric with contempt. 1858Trollope Dr. Thorne I. i. 2 Its social graces, and the general air of clanship which pervades it [sc. Barsetshire]. 1859Thackeray Virgin. II. xxxiii. 266 To marry without a competence is..a crime against our social codes. 1861J. S. Mill in Fraser's Mag. Dec. 672/1 This is the highest abstract standard of social and distributive justice. 1863Home & Foreign Rev. Oct. 546 The multiplicity of her characters,..the richness of her social backgrounds. 1864Social hierarchy [see hierarchy 4]. 1869Mill Subj. Women iv. 163 Self-respect, self-help, and self-control..are the essential conditions both of individual prosperity and of social virtue. 1871A. C. Fraser Life of Berkeley ii. 88 He was shocked by the tone of social morality, which so appallingly greeted him on his return. 1872Morley Voltaire (1886) 10 Pale unshapen embryos of social sympathy. 1876H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. I. iii. ii. 629 After welfare of the social group and welfare of progeny, comes welfare of parents. 1887J. Bascom Sociol. i. 9 But, with fitting modifications, they shape also the social contact of diverse ranks. 1892Social welfare [see welfare n. 1]. 1897Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Nov. 343 As we say in sociological language, there was a very low degree of social consciousness. 1901W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) vii. 150 There are social prejudices which scientific men themselves obey. 1901Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Nov. 399 He makes a better home and moves upward in the social scale, perhaps, faster than the immigrant from any other country. 1902Social justice [see environmental a.]. 1911M. Corelli Life Everlasting ix. 210 He doesn't fit into any accepted social code at all. 1927B. Russell Outl. Philos. ii. 27 Knowledge..as a social phenomenon..is something displayed in bodily movements. 1935H. Edib Clown & his Daughter xxv. 137 The shadow of a social barrier was added to the damnable shadow of separation! 1935T. S. Eliot Murder in Cathedral ii. 80 There are times when violence is the only way in which social justice can be secured. 1938L. MacNeice I crossed Minch ix. 130 A mind must be conditioned by education and social context. 1940Economist 5 Oct. 428/1 More than two decades of extremely divergent developments in contrasting social climates had to be undone. 1947Mind LVI. 327 If we speak of ‘social problems’, that is something different. 1955T. Williams in S. J. Kunitz 20th Cent. Authors Suppl. I. 1088/1 In St. Louis we suddenly discovered there were two kinds of people, the rich and the poor, and that we belonged more to the latter... It was the beginning of the social-consciousness which I think has marked most of my writing. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. xvi. 199 In limited spheres advice is also given by social scientists,..on the social welfare of the old, young, and poor. 1966G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising v. 49 Slang and familiar forms of language..help..to fix the identity and social background of the speaker. 1967Social mix [see mix n.2 1 a]. 1970Guardian 3 June 8/6 The Arts Council and its affiliated agencies..are seen as a vital part of the social fabric for which society must be responsible. 1970F. C. Weffort in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. xi. 391 It legalized the ‘social question’; that is, it formally recognised that the masses have a right to express their aspirations. 1978Bookseller 17 June 3186/3 A school with only 170 children, a high percentage of whom have severe social problems. 1981G. Priestland Priestland's Progress ii. 34 The compilers of the gospels had other things on their minds than..Jewish social problems. 1982Times 14 June 9/5 The bribery, abuse of privilege, and indifference to social welfare on his own [sc. the Labour Party] side.
b. Of life, conditions, institutions, etc.
1736Butler Anal. i. i. 28 When we go out of this World, we may pass into..a new State of Life and Action... And this new State may naturally be a social one. 1765Akenside Pleas. Imag. ii. 82 Science herself: on whom the wants and cares Of social life depend. 1830J. S. Mill Let. 9 Feb. in Wks. (1963) XII. 48 Those parts of our social institutions and policy which at present oppose improvement. 1861J. S. Mill Utilit. iii. 46 The social state is..so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man. 1868T. Rogers Pol. Econ. xiv. 183 The condition of social life is that different persons should be engaged in different pursuits. 1887J. Payn Holiday Tasks 123 If people would only say what they really think concerning this and that..social life would be much more interesting. 1949M. Fortes Social Structure 55 The British House of Commons is a familiar instance of growth in social institutions and organization. 1957Practical Wireless XXXIII. 727/2 (Advt.), You get a welcome break from the usual routine, with sports, games and a great social life. 1974in Wertheim's Evolution & Revolution 91 In looking for the structural features of social life we look first for the existence of social groups of all kinds.
c. Of rank, position, etc., or of persons in respect of these.
1835H. Reeve tr. de Tocqueville's Democracy in Amer. II. ix. 256 The Anglo-Americans settled in the New World in a state of social equality. 1840Ibid. IV. iii. xii. 106 They have allowed the social inferiority of woman to subsist. 1840J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. Mar. 262 The demoralizing effect of great inequalities in wealth and social rank. 1849Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 316 Enjoying..an equality of social rank. 1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting vii. 273 Albert Smith..says that the colonies are only refuges for destitute social suicides. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. III. 78 The rulers of other European states were ready to receive him as their social peer. a1876H. Martineau Autobiogr. (1877) (ed. 3) I. 297 Norwich..has now no claims to social superiority. 1885W. Harris Hist. Radical Party xvii. 429 Whigs and Conservatives alike desired..conditions and limitations which should preserve power to the same social class which had now the control of so many of the constituencies. 1888E. Bellamy Looking Backward xi. 164 Who are willing to be domestic servants..where all are social equals? Our ladies found it hard enough to find such even when there was little pretense of social equality. 1917N. Douglas South Wind xxxix. 453 Her home broken up; her child a bastard; herself and Meadows—social outcasts. 1925New Yorker 11 July 6/1 The fact that Davis is a social outcast because of his want of faith..wouldn't cut any ice. 1928Mrs. Belloc Lowndes Diary 20 Feb. (1971) 113 One of Curzon's most unfortunate peculiarities was his rudeness to those whom he considered his social inferiors. 1934M. V. Hughes London Child of Seventies xiii. 159 One must never suppose that any other people whatsoever are one's social superiors. 1944L. P. Hartley Shrimp & Anemone xiv. 200 The social superiority of the South over all parts of England. 1948‘G. Orwell’ in Observer 28 Nov. 4/4 The social misfit..should learn to be contented in his own station. 1958J. K. Galbraith Affluent Society vi. 55 In the central tradition of economic theory, the existence of social classes—of capitalists, middle class, and proletarians—was only surreptitiously conceded. 1964T. B. Bottomore Elites & Society i. 23 S. F. Nadel..emphasizes ‘social superiority’ as the distinguishing feature of an elite. 1967A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in Eng. ii. 86 The medieval peasant..his illiteracy, his social inferiority. 1970N. A. Victoria in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. xv. 549 Among the remaining social classes, the split was reflected in general skepticism. 1973Listener 28 June 863/2 The Industrial Revolution..became in time a social revolution and established that social equality on which we all depend.
d. social evil, prostitution. Also attrib. and transf. (quot. 1865).
1857(title), Great Social Evil—Prostitution, the greatest of our Social Evils. 1863Sat. Rev. 626/1 The nauseous category of social-evil literature. 1865Slang Dict. 239 Social evil, a name beginning to be applied to street-walkers in consequence of the articles in the newspapers being so headed. 1901Contemp. Rev. Mar. 323 Those slums have become a pandemonium of drunkenness and the social evil.
e. Social Sci. Pertaining or due to the interrelations resulting from an individual's association with others or connected with the functions and structures necessary to membership of a group or society. Also transf. in Zool.
There is no rigid demarcation between this sense and the primary meaning of 7 a and b; the examples given illustrate some of the uses commonly found among writers on the social sciences.
1840J. S. Mill in Edin. Rev. Oct. 5 By Democracy M. de Tocqueville understands equality of conditions; the absence of all aristocracy, whether constituted by political privileges, or by superiority in individual importance and social power. 1843Social organism [see dynamics 1 b]. 1852J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. II. 380 Attention is due to those opinions and feelings,..not as matter of history, but as social forces in present being. 1861― Repr. Govt. iii. 68 Where this school of public spirit does not exist, scarcely any sense is entertained that private persons, in no eminent social situation, owe any duties to society, except to obey the laws and submit to the government. 1876H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. I. ii. iii. 487 That social integration that results from the clustering of clusters, is joined with augmentation of the number contained by each cluster. 1877G. H. Lewes Problems III. 5 A new factor, namely, the social factor. 1878W. James Let. 25 Nov. in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. of W. James (1935) II. 35 Their only weakness would lie in the fact of their social environment not recognizing this as the ultimate interest. 1890― Princ. Psychol. I. x. 293 A man's Social Self is the recognition which he gets from his mates. 1904― Mem. & Stud. (1911) vi. 138 It would never occur to a reader of his [sc. Spencer's] pages that a social force proper might be anything that acted as a stimulus of social change. 1905A. W. Small Gen. Sociol. xxvii. 381 It is the factor which is essential in the end, to economize and co-ordinate all the details of social adjustment. 1920Thomas & Znaniecki Polish Peasant IV. p. xii, Many individuals..consider the social isolation and relatively low cultural level of the peasant communities an undesirable phenomenon. 1934C. W. Morris in G. H. Mead Mind, Self & Soc. p. xvi, Though not used by Mead, the term ‘social behaviorism’ may serve to characterize the relation of Mead's position to that of John B. Watson. 1936M. Sherif Psychol. of Social Norms 3 We shall consider customs, traditions, standards, rules, values, fashions, and all other criteria of conduct which are standardized as a consequence of the contact of individuals, as specific cases of ‘social norms’. 1936Amer. Jrnl. Orthopsychiatry VI. 416 (title) Trends in social therapy. 1941Miller & Dollard (title) Social learning and imitation. 1941Mind L. 396 Boodin's reflections on society and the social behaviour of men have, obviously, been deeply influenced by these two special sorts of experiences. 1944Mind LIII. 351 It is said to be evident ‘on evolutionary grounds’ that the individual is ‘higher than the state or the social organism’. 1945E. Mayo Social Problems of Industrial Civilization i. 13 Social skill shows itself as a capacity to receive communications from others, and to respond to the attitudes and ideas of others in such fashion as to promote congenial participation in a common task. 1949M. Mead Male & Female i. 10 None of these powers—to kill individuals, to destroy the social integration of groups..are new. 1951Gerth & Bramstedt tr. Mannheim's Freedom, Power & Democratic Planning i. 6 By social techniques I refer to all methods of influencing human behavior so that it fits into the prevailing patterns of social interaction and organization. 1959W. F. Leopold in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 349 The colloquial standard [speech] of an individual has several layers suitable for a variety of social situations. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. viii. 108 Social factors are of considerable importance in job satisfaction, according to a number of early studies. 1975E. O. Wilson Sociobiol. ii. vii. 160/1 Although the development of ‘social behavior’ has not been analyzed in these animals, the visible responses are..elementary and stereotyped. 1978D. Grylls Guardians & Angels i. 31 Traherne..blames the social environment instead of original sin.
8. Psychol. (See quots.)
1785Reid Intell. Powers 73 The social as well as the solitary operations of the mind. 1788― Active Powers v. vi. 664, I call those operations social which necessarily imply social intercourse.
9. Concerned with, interested in, the constitution of society and the problems presented by this:
a. Of persons.
1833J. S. Mill in Monthly Repos. VII. 269 An error which many..of our social reformers, habitually fall into. 1841C. Bray Philos. Necessity II. 467 A thorough Social Reformer. 1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. II. 242/1 One of the most difficult topics that the social philosopher can deal with. 1859G. A. Sala Twice Round Clock 36, I am glad to observe, for the edification of social economists. 1885W. Harris Hist. Radical Party vii. 120 Some immediate remedy such as the Spencean and other social theorists had to offer. 1898Daily News 12 Oct. 4/4 The Church had always been social and humanitarian. 1919Branford & Geddes Coming Polity (ed. 2) iii. i. 223 Compound these three insurgent types of social critic..and you have the disorders of Revolution. 1926B. Webb My Apprenticeship v. 217 In comparison with the preceding generation of social researchers, I suggest that his [sc. Charles Booth's] method of analysis constitutes..the first sign-post directing the student on one of the main ways to discovery. 1931Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Oct. 809/2 Like the work of so many of the ‘social’ novelists of his period, it is to a large extent a sort of narrative journalism of contemporary events. 1941J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man xi. 251 Our social planners would undoubtedly benefit from a study of the evolution of individuality in animals. 1949M. Fortes Social Structure p. ix, Their theme was the comparative study of human society by the methods of the natural sciences, and the difference between such studies and those of social philosophers. 1970R. A. H. Robinson Origins of Franco's Spain v. 224 In the terminology of European Catholic thought, the Spanish Monarchists of the 1930s were social-romantics, the Cedistas social-reformists. 1970Guardian 7 Aug. 10/5 [Notting Hill's] over-exposure is the result of the number of social agencies and sheer do-gooders that have moved into the area.
b. Of sciences, theories, etc.
1828J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. IX. 257 In political and social philosophy his [sc. Sir Walter Scott's] principles are all summed up in the orthodox one, that whatever is English is best. 1835H. Reeve tr. de Tocqueville's Democracy in America I. ii. 23 The..main ideas which constitute the basis of the social theory of the United States. 1836J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. XXVI. 11 Laws of society, or laws of human nature in the social state..form the subject of a branch of science which may be aptly designated from the title of social economy; somewhat less happily by that of speculative politics, or the science of politics, as contra-distinguished from the art. 1837― in Ibid. XXVIII. 100 These men raised the cry of social reform. 1841C. Bray Philos. Necessity II. 404 Social Reform. 1845Polson Eng. Law in Encycl. Metrop. II. 802/1 Social Economy.—Laws which directly consult the health, wealth, convenience or comfort of the public, may properly be referred to this head. 1887B. Webb My Apprenticeship (1926) 418 Seeking justification in social research. 1899Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. May 765 But they have all come by experience to discover that the social ethics of Christianity can indeed supply a moral basis of a general kind for social work and social politics. 1901Ibid. Jan. 472 We have a social technology—a system of conscious and purposeful organization of persons in which every actual, natural social organization finds its true place, and all factors..cooperate to realize an increasing aggregate and better proportions of the ‘health, wealth, beauty, knowledge, sociability, and rightness’ desires. 1914G. B. Shaw Dark Lady of Sonnets 129 Our plays of poverty and squalor..will then be..read only by historical students of social pathology. 1914New Republic 14 Nov. 28/2 The author believes that one way to write best sellers is to write filth. This is not as it should be. These two propositions, taken together, are social criticism. 1920W. R. Sorley Hist. Eng. Philos. xii. 265 Maurice's..work, both in social reform and in religion, derived stimulus and direction from philosophical ideas. 1931Proc. Nat. Conf. Social Work 1930 448 Social planning suggests activity on the part of groups in making planning effective in action. 1937L. C. Knights in Scrutiny VI. 137 It is just possible to claim that Restoration comedy contains ‘social criticism’ in its handling of ‘the vulgar’. 1949Mind LVIII. 383 ‘Social theory’ is the general study of the whole field of social phenomena. 1957P. Coveney Poor Monkey iv. 54 The social novel of Disraeli, Mrs. Gaskell, and Kingsley..represents something essential to the literary consciousness of the age. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. xvi. 202 Another objection to social planning is that it is felt to increase the power of the state and restrict individual freedom. 1976Listener 3 June 705/3 A different style of thought in social philosophy..post-Marxist critique. 1979A. Easson Elizabeth Gaskell ii. 61 Mary Barton and North and South are often spoken of in the context of social fiction. 1980Times 9 Jan. 10/3 The British tradition of politically committed social research.
c. Of activities, etc., carried out (esp. by government agencies) to improve the condition of society or for the benefit of society as a whole.
1964Times Rev. Industry & Technol. Jan. 65/3 The large backlog in ‘social’ investments—schools, hospitals, public and private housing. 1965B. Pearce tr. Preobrazhensky's New Economics 222 Where the tractor is acquired by society as a whole it will facilitate the transition to the social cultivation of the land throughout the countryside. 1973Listener 1 Mar. 287/2 Love of the poor needs social legislation to stiffen it up. 1977Spare Rib Jan. 25/1 Legislation is ineffectual while cuts in social spending continue.
10. social chauvinism, a communist term for the attitude or action of a socialist party which supports the non-socialist government of its country in the prosecution of a war; so social chauvinist n. and adj.; social democracy, (the advocacy of) a socialist system achieved by democratic means (formerly also a general term for socialism and communism); social democrat, a member of a political party having socialistic views; also applied spec. to a member of the communist party in Russia and elsewhere; now applied chiefly to one who advocates the achievement of socialism by democratic means; esp. in the U.K., a member of the Social Democratic Party; hence social democratic adj., now esp. in the U.K. designating a party founded in March 1981 by a group of former Labour MPs; also in extended use; social fascist, term used by communists for a member of any other left-wing party (implying the identity of non-communist socialism with fascism); hence social fascism; social-imperialism, a term used at one time in China (and occas. elsewhere) for policies held to conceal imperialist aims beneath a socialist veneer; hence social imperialist; social revolutionary adj., advocating or supporting social revolution (applied spec. to a former political party in Russia); also as n.
1976H. T. Willetts tr. A. Solzhenitsyn's Lenin in Zurich 256 ‘The development of the international socialist movement’, he [sc. Lenin] wrote, ‘is moving slowly..but definitely in the direction of ‘a break’ with opportunism and social chauvinism.’
1957R. N. C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon xliv. 147 The social chauvinists are the socialist leaders who were supporting their bourgeois governments in prosecuting the war as one of national defence. 1974J. White tr. Poulantzas's Fascism & Dictatorship iv. ii. 185 It was during this same period, mainly after 1930, that the social-chauvinist side of KPD policy grew decisively.
1888G. B. Shaw in Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889) 183 What then does a gradual transition to Social Democracy mean specifically? It means the gradual extension of the franchise; and the transfer of rent and interest to the State. 1928[see centrist b]. 1947Vogue May 104/3 Sweden represents the best way of existence a flourishing social-democracy has yet found. 1974J. White tr. Poulantzas's Fascism & Dictatorship iv. i. 151 Social democracy, except sometimes in revolutionary periods, has in principle a permanent mass basis in a capitalist formation. 1981Times 10 Mar. 1/6 Mr Jenkins said that ‘well before Easter’ the Council for Social Democracy would have been turned into the Social Democrat Party.
1877St. James's Gaz. 7 Mar. (Cassell), This long period of activity has enabled the Social Democrats to found no fewer than twenty-five clubs in London. 1881Social democrat [see proletariate, -at 2 a]. 1899Daily News 19 July 5/5 The Clericals did not shrink from concluding a regular pact with the Social Democrats. 1918[see minimalist 1]. 1947Partisan Rev. XIV. 312 Barea was one of those gray murky middle-class Social Democrats who made of his adherence a means of avoiding rather than of engaging in political thought. 1965New Statesman 14 May 753/2 A preference for the Social Democrat stronghold [sc. Berlin] over the Christian Democrat capital [sc. Bonn]. 1974tr. Sniečkus's Soviet Lithuania 13 During the revolution, increasing numbers of Lithuanian Social-Democrats urged that their party unite with the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. 1981Times 26 Mar. 14/8 We have gained the sympathy of a quarter of Britain's voters, and between a third and two-fifths if Social Democrats fight together with Liberals.
1870Times 10 Oct. 3/2 General von Falkenstein has issued the following order:—‘The prohibition to hold social Democratic meetings is rescinded.’ 1887[see international a. 1 b]. 1893W. C. Robinson tr. Ten Brink's Hist. Eng. Lit. II. iv. 24 Many influences..worked together to produce that social-democratic rising. 1966I. Deutscher in Marxism in Our Time (1972) 36 Trotsky..represents the Marxist school of thought in its purity, as it existed before its debasement by the social-democratic and Stalinist orthodoxies. 1975Times Lit. Suppl. 23 May 563/4 Recommendations which ranged from orthodox socialist models to moderately social-democratic solutions. 1981Guardian 26 Mar. 4/8 The Social Democratic Party will be launched today. 1981Times 12 Dec. 7/1 It is essential..to divine in good time which of the two mutually exclusive positions on the subject [of snow] will be taken by each person one meets. As far as snow is concerned, there is no middle ground, no Social Democratic stance.
1941‘G. Orwell’ in V. Gollancz Betrayal of Left 210 All orthodox Communists were committed to the belief that ‘Social-fascism’ (i.e. Socialism) was the real enemy of the workers. 1974J. White tr. Poulantzas's Fascism & Dictatorship iv. i. 149 It was no accident that the theory of social fascism was unfailingly accompanied by the identification of fascism with the other forms of bourgeois State.
a1937J. Bell in Essays, Poems & Lett. (1938) ii. 294 ‘The adversary.’ He takes the form of an enthusiastic member of the Young Communist League and he bellows incessantly. That I am a social-democratic, social-fascist, weak-kneed traitor. That I am a bourgeois intellectual. 1961[see Fascist n. and a.]. 1975Guardian 19 Mar. 2/3 Their [sc. the Portuguese Maoists'] stated philosophy is that the Armed Forces movement, the Communist Party, and other left-wing groups are ‘Social Fascists’.
1965tr. Lenin's Tasks of Third International in Coll. Works XXIX. 502 ‘Fabian imperialism’ and ‘social-imperialism’ are one and the same thing: socialism in words, imperialism in deeds. 1971Social imperialism [see revisionist a.]. 1978Hua Kuo-feng in Peking Rev. 10 Mar. 35/2 The people's struggle against them, and in particular against Soviet social-imperialism, is on a higher upsurge than ever.
1974China Reconstructs July 4/1 The Soviet revisionist social-imperialists bill Confucius as ‘the most holy sage and foremost teacher of China.’
1907Social revolutionary [see integralist n.]. 1918[see minimalist 1]. 1931E. Wilson Axel's Castle viii. 270 He [sc. Rimbaud] had flamed up, at the fall of the Second Empire, with social-revolutionary idealism. 1978Listener 17 Aug. 206/2 Lenin proposed that the land should be given to the peasants. The indignant social revolutionaries shouted out, ‘But that's our programme..and you have opposed it.’
11. Comb. with other adjs., as social-conscious, social-cultural, social-economic, social-emotional, social-ethical, social-minded, social-philosophical, social-political, social-relational, social-religious, social-situational.
1856Geo. Eliot in Westm. Rev. X. 68 The views at which he has arrived.., he sums up in the term—social-political-conservatism. 1890Gross Gild Merch. I. 163 At Barnstaple..the Gild Merchant seems to have been transformed into a social-religious gild. 1899Daily News 21 June 4/3 Parliament is at last tired of social-political experiments. 1919M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism I. i. v. 71 A serious contribution to social-economic speculation. 1932Addresses & Proc. Nat. Educ. Assoc. of U.S. LXX. 231 It has been thought that social-economic planning in the United States would break down our democratic form of government. 1939A. Huxley After Many a Summer ii. v. 229 For these..‘normality’ in sexual behaviour would be quite different from what it was for the more social-minded. 1940K. Mannheim Ideology & Utopia 35 The discovery of the social-situational roots of thought at first, therefore, took the form of unmasking. 1942C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 183 His social-conscious protestations of hurt had leapt the bounds of amateur sincerity. 1951Parsons & Shils Toward General Theory of Action i. i. 18 Fundamentals of behavior psychology..primary viscerogenic and possibly social-relational needs, cognition and learning. 1956J. Klein Study of Groups viii. 118 Social-emotional behaviour. 1960C. S. Lewis Studies in Words i. 22 Thus from the very first the social-ethical meaning, merely by existing, is bound to separate itself from the status-meaning. 1970A. G. Frank in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. vi. 220 There are undoubtedly differences in..various social-cultural indices between the self-built and the other two types of low-income urban settlements. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory viii. 291 Durkheim..was very critical of some features of Comte's social-philosophical writings.
12. Special collocations. social action, deliberate action that results in the restructuring of institutions or a change in the conditions of life in a society; social anthropology, the study of (esp. primitive) peoples comparatively through their kinship systems, associations, institutions, culture, etc., and the forces that affect their social systems; hence social anthropological a., social anthropologist; social benefit, (a) a benefit to society resulting from technological innovation and the like; (b) a benefit (benefit n. 4 d) payable under a system of social security; social butterfly, a person who flits from one social entertainment to another or is chiefly occupied with social activities, a socialite; social case-work, case-worker = case-work, case-worker; social causation, the causation of human actions by social factors, or their analysis in these terms; social centre, any place in which people gather for communal activities, recreations, etc., esp. a building designed for this purpose; social change, change in the customs, institutions, or culture of a society brought about by some new, esp. technological or ideological, element; social character (see quots.); social climber, one who seeks to advance himself socially, esp. by gaining acceptance in fashionable society; hence (as back-formations) social climb n. and v. intr., social climbing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; social column, a column in a newspaper or magazine that reports the activities of members of fashionable or leisured society; hence social columnist; social compact = social contract, below; social conscience, a conscience that is sensitive to or preoccupied with the problems and injustices of society; social contract, (a) the mutual agreement which, according to Rousseau's Contrat social (1762), forms the basis of human society; (b) transf., a mutual agreement between specific groups or elements within a society; social control, control of the individual by the social group to which he belongs; control by government, on behalf of society as a whole, of particular sectors of society; social cost, the cost to society in terms of effort, ill-health, inconvenience, etc., of some enterprise or innovation; social cycle (see quot. 1963); social Darwinism Sociol., the Darwinian theory of evolution extended and applied to various aspects of the concept of social progress; hence social Darwinist n. and a.; social deprivation, deprivation of social interaction or of the ordinary benefits of social life; social dialectology, the study of the dialects spoken by particular social groups; hence social dialectologist; social differentiation, the process whereby a group or community becomes separate or distinct; the process whereby the different roles and functions of individuals become institutionalized; social disease, any social evil such as poverty, starvation, etc.; spec. U.S., venereal disease (orig. a euphemism); social disorganization (see quot. 1920); social distance Social Psychol., (a) the degree of remoteness that a member of one social group would like to exist or feels to exist between himself and the members of another, expressed (for example) in terms of the relationships to which he would admit them; (b) the physical distance between individuals that they find acceptable in social contexts; social document, a literary work embodying an authentic and informative description of the social conditions of its time; also transf.; social drinking vbl. n., the drinking of alcoholic liquor as a stimulus to, or an accompaniment of, social intercourse; hence as ppl. a. and (as back-formations) social drink n., social drinker; social dynamics, (the branch of sociology treating of) the forces at work in social change; social engineering orig. U.S., the application of sociological principles to specific social problems; hence social engineer, a specialist in this field; social evolution: see evolution 9; social fact, something originating in the institutions or culture of a society which affects the behaviour or attitudes of the individual member of that society; social geography (see quot. 1929); hence social geographer; social gospel, an understanding of the gospel as having especially a social application; used esp. with reference to many U.S. churchmen of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who advocated social reform through the Christian gospel; also gen., a message of salvation for society; social history, (a) the history of social behaviour or of society (the usual sense); (b) the background and circumstances of a social worker's client; hence (in sense (a)) social historian, social-historical a.; social inquiry report (see quot. 1967); social insurance, the insurance of the citizen against loss of income through sickness, unemployment, etc., with the participation of the government and the employer; also in extended use and attrib.; social lie, an untrue statement designed to facilitate social relations; hence social liar; social medicine (see quot. 1925); social mobility = mobility1 1 c; social mobilization Sociol. (see quot. 1961); social morphology, (the study of) the various forms of social structure and the changes that take place within them or govern them; social order, (a) orderliness within society, absence of disorder and unrest; (b) the way in which society is organized at a given time, the constituted social system; social organization: see organization 2 c; social ownership Socialism, a form of collective ownership in which the organization and control of an enterprise is shared; esp. ownership and control of an industry, company, etc., by those who work in it (see quot. 1984) or else by the community at large; social position: see position n. 9 b; social process, a pattern that can be discerned in the way a society coheres and adapts to change over a period of years; social psychiatry, the branch of mental health concerned with the social causes and social consequences of mental illness and with the various social methods which may be used to treat such illness; hence social psychiatric a., social psychiatrist; social psychology, the study of human behaviour as it is affected by social factors; hence social-psychological a., social psychologist; cf. collective psychology s.v. collective a. 2 d; social realism, realism in art and literature that has a specifically social or political content or message; sometimes applied spec. to a movement in U.S. art in the 1930s; also attrib.; hence social realist n. and a., social realistic a.; social reality, a conception of what exists that is affected by the customs and beliefs of the group; social register orig. U.S., a register or directory of those who are socially prominent; transf., a union black list; also attrib. or as adj.; social releaser = releaser c; social revolution, a revolution in the structure and nature of society; spec. that anticipated or fostered by socialists and communists (cf. social revolutionary a. and n., sense 10 above); social role = rôle 2; social secretary, a secretary whose function it is to make arrangements for the social activities of a person or society; social space Sociol., the ‘space’, in terms of the difference in social position or individual freedom of action, that is felt to exist between one person and another; social statics Sociol., the study of the organization and structure of a stable society or social group; social status: see status 3; social stratification, the division of society into strata based on social position or class; social strata, stratum: see stratum 6; social structure, the established set of customs, relationships, institutions, etc., of which a social system is composed; hence social structural a.; social studies, an inclusive term for various aspects or branches of the study of human society; social survey, a comprehensive and detailed examination of some aspect of the social life, history, problems, etc., of a particular locality; social system, a set of interdependent relationships, customs, institutions, etc., that constitute a society; social table (see quot. 1952); social unit, an individual considered as one of the separate parts of which a society or group is composed; a community or group considered as having a separate identity within a larger whole; social wage (see quot. 1975); also transf.; social will, a term for the desires regarding the affairs of a society or group expressed by its members in general.
1853H. Martineau tr. Comte's Positive Philos. II. viii. 246 Its distinctive social action..was well represented by the noble Fabricius. 1873H. Spencer Study of Sociol. i. 2 Minds in which the conceptions of social actions are thus rudimentary, are also minds ready to harbour wild hopes of benefits to be achieved by administrative agencies. 1937T. Parsons (title) The structure of social action. 1951R. Firth Elements of Social Organization i. 33 No social action, no element of culture, can be adequately studied or defined in isolation. 1953in S. Tax et al. Appraisal of Anthropology Today xiii. 220/2 The outline..does not vary much from subjects..considered to be in the cultural/social-anthropological field.
1927Ogburn & Goldenweiser Social Sciences ii. 11 Then there are the social anthropologists who make economic activity the basis of social anthropology.
1896Academy 18 Jan. 49/1 Dr. Steinmetz..found processes of moral, political, and religious development so intricately entwined, that his researches had to spread far over the field of social anthropology. 1908J. G. Frazer Psyche's Task (1913) 159 (heading) The scope of social anthropology, an Inaugural Lecture. 1975M. Bradbury History Man ix. 147, I worked in social anthropology with him..he's certainly not a racist.
1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. III. lvi. 241 Your neatly-carved argument for a social benefit which they [sc. rustics] do not feel. 1963Listener 23 May 855/1 Dr Beesley..and I have attempted a so⁓called social-benefit study or, as it is sometimes called, a cost-benefit analysis, of the London Victoria line. 1963J. R. Sargent in M. Shanks Lessons of Public Enterprise xv. 250 A balancing of social benefits against social costs. 1972Guardian 30 Dec. 4/1 From Monday every citizen of the nine nations..is entitled to the same pay and..social benefits..as fellow Europeans.
1910A. E. Housman Let. 4 Mar. (1971) 108 People are asking me out a great deal too often..I am not a social butterfly. 1938D. du Maurier Rebecca ix. 117 A social butterfly, very modern and plastered with paint. 1975D. Ramsay Descent into Dark i. 15 To be a social butterfly and make my wife happy.
1917M. E. Richmond Social Diagnosis 5 The methods and aims of social case work were or should be the same in every type of service. Ibid., The ground which all social case workers could occupy in common.
1896F. H. Giddings Princ. Sociol. i. 20 Thus the cycle of social causation begins and ends in the physical process. 1937R. M. MacIver Society xxvi. 476 In social causation there is a logical order of relationship between the factors that we do not find in physical causation. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sciences 647/1 There has been much discussion about the relationship between ideas of social causation and the problem of the freedom of the individual will.
1901Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Sept. 206 Is there not room for the school..in providing accessible and agreeable social centers? 1922L. Mumford in H. Stearns Civilization in U.S. 6 The social centre and the community centre, which in a singularly hard and consciously beatific way have sought to organize fellowship and mutual aid.., are products of the last decade. 1937Discovery Feb. 47/1 Social amelioration through a special milk scheme, a special housing scheme, and the encouragement of camps and social centres. 1978J. Anderson Angel of Death v. 42 The main saloon..was the social centre of the yacht.
1836J. S. Mill in London & Westm. Rev. Jan. 28 The main thing which social changes can do for the..higher classes..is gradually to put an end to every kind of unearned distinction. 1856A. C. Fraser Ess. Philos. i. 11 The most memorable religious and social change which the world has witnessed since the introduction of Christianity. 1952Gerth & Martindale in Weber's Ancient Judaism p. xviii, A second sociological issue of concern to Weber is the examination of social changes due to territorial organization and urbanization.
1942E. Fromm Fear of Freedom 239 The social character comprises only a selection of traits, the essential nucleus of the character structure of most members of a group which has developed as the result of the basic experiences and mode of life common to that group. 1961R. H. Williams Long Revol. i. iii. 79 The ‘social character’ is a selective response to experience, a learned system of feeling and acting, in a majority of the community into which the child is born. 1975G. Howell In Vogue 151/2 Sweaters appear... Their social climb touches its peak..over a grandly outsize evening skirt.
1962Sunday Express 21 Jan. 1/3 Allegations that I was social-climbing among royalty.
1926S. Lewis Mantrap viii. 95 You sniveling little social climber! 1941A. Christie Evil under Sun ix. 178 There are many of your English idioms that describe him. The rough diamond! The self-made man! The social climber! 1973Black World Mar. 21 Whatever the shortcomings of our early literary efforts, they ought not be considered in the main as the reprehensible fumblings of middle-class social-climbers.
1924W. Holtby Crowded Street xxxviii. 294 The careful tact of years of social climbing. 1927P. Sorokin Social Mobility vii. 133 There are two types of vertical mobility:..social climbing and social sinking. 1938Auden & Isherwood On Frontier iii. ii. 107 A social-climbing wife and a playboy son. 1960Twentieth Century Dec. 588 A political thriller about a middle-aged reporter who learns of a major scandal involving a Minister of the Crown... Good pictures of the social-climbing Minister,..and various Fleet Street characters. 1978Trans. Yorks. Dial. Soc. lxxviii. 12 He takes the opportunity to castigate the creeping hypocrisy and social climbing which had always called forth his most bitter satire.
1936‘R. West’ Thinking Reed vii. 223 A crowded paragraph in the social column of the Paris New York Herald. 1952M. Allingham Tiger in Smoke i. 9 Every social column in the country had announced that she was about to marry him. 1976‘R. Macdonald’ Blue Hammer ix. 43, I don't intend to write a social column for the rest of my life. 1976M. Green Children of Sun vi. 209 Hannen Swaffer was the first social columnist who knew from inside the world he wrote about.
1793, etc. Social compact [see compact n.1 1 b]. 1974Times 26 Feb. 12/3 Mr Wilson has sought to defend this rubbish by arguing that a great new ‘social compact’ with the unions will be achieved, by the terms of which they will agree to forgo wage-increases in return for all the splendidly socialist things Mr Wilson's Government will be doing.
1883B. Potter Let. July in Lett. Sidney & Beatrice Webb (1978) I. 16 So ends the London Season! and I shall return with clear social conscience to my dowdy dress. 1888G. B. Shaw in Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889) 185 The value of Trade Unionism in awakening the social conscience of the skilled workers. 1925A. Huxley Those Barren Leaves i. iii. 35 When our dividends came rolling in..we did, it is true, feel almost a twinge of social conscience. 1978Architectural Design 5 June 311/3 Public libraries and art galleries were built by..millionaires with a social conscience.
1849–50Alison Hist. Europe I. iii. §90. 351 Rousseau's dreams on the social contract. 1967B. R. Williams New Social Contract 4 In a modern industrial nation..the individual and the community enter in effect into a Social Contract, by which the group as a whole agrees to dedicate a certain part of its total assets..to the provision of benefits for its members. 1972Times 3 Oct. 1/1 ‘We say that what Britain needs is a new social contract,’ Mr Callaghan said. 1974Socialist Worker 23 Nov. 3/4 The last week has seen two massive holes punched through the Social Contract. First by the Rolls-Royce workers in getting their {pstlg}8 a week rise, then [etc.]. 1977Guardian Weekly 11 Sept. 5/5 The greatest strength of our unarmed police force lies..in its social contract with the public.
1859Mill Liberty i. 14 The practical question, where to place the limit—how to make the fitting adjustment between individual independence and social control—is a subject on which nearly everything remains to be done. 1896E. A. Ross in Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Mar. 519 By Social Control, on the other hand, I mean that ascendancy over the aims and acts of the individual which is exercised on behalf of the group. 1898F. H. Giddings Elem. Sociol. xix. 217 Social control, manifesting itself in the authoritative organization of society as the state, and acting through the organs of government, is sovereignty. 1913L. T. Hobhouse Devel. & Purpose p. xvii, A new demand for the extension of collective responsibility and the social control of industrial life. 1951N. Annan Leslie Stephen vii. 218 The field of what is now called social control. How do law, custom, religion and moral codes govern men's actions? 1972Guardian 29 Mar. 14/3 By closing its doors relatively early, the public transport system is an effective measure of social control over non-car owners.
1901Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. July 137 For marginal social cost always equals marginal social utility. 1927G. D. H. Cole Econ. System vii. 62 Social cost simply cannot be measured in terms of money, but only in the last resort in terms of human effort and destruction of natural resources. 1977N.Y. Rev. Bks. 31 Mar. 21/2 Rehabilitation [of housing]..has proved to be cheaper in social costs.
1961B.S.I. News Nov. 11/2 The new regulations..also lay down requirements about the lights to be carried on four-wheeled ‘social cycles’, now common in holiday areas. 1963Daily Tel. 8 July 11/8 A young woman holidaymaker riding a ‘social-cycle’ was killed... The cycles are often seen at seaside resorts. They are like tricycles with two people sitting beside each other on a bench.
1887Mind XII. 627 There can be no ‘social Darwinism’. Social progress is not essentially the result of a struggle, but of intelligence. 1972P. B. Medawar Hope of Progress 71 Social Darwinism in the form expounded by Haeckel provided a theoretical justification for the great biological crimes of Fascism.
1907Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. XII. 709 The great writers on race-struggles never use the term ‘social Darwinism’ but a number of sociologists have called them ‘social Darwinists’. 1945R. Hofstadter Social Darwinism in Amer. Thought ii. 25 In applying evolution to society, Spencer, and after him the Social Darwinists, were simply doing poetic justice to its origins. 1981J. Sutherland Bestsellers iv. 57 There is no room for..cosiness in Hailey's social-Darwinist universe.
1958Jrnl. Abnormal & Social Psychol. LVI. 49 (title) The effect of brief social deprivation on behaviors for a social re⁓inforcer. 1979W. J. Fishman Streets of E. London 52/2 The social deprivation inherent in East End life.
1977Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1974 lxi/lxii. 4 Social dialectologists in recent years have made numerous attempts to describe the speech of black Americans. 1981Amer. Speech LVI. 104 Social dialectologists..have also neglected important work of the area linguists.
1970Jrnl. Eng. Linguistics IV. 46 (title) Social dialectology in America: a critical survey. Ibid., Although..Mencken..and others had discussed American social dialects, the systematic study of the sociology of American English really began in the late 1920's. 1976General Linguistics XVI. 32 Rustic is an example of social dialectology at its thoroughly honest best.
1872H. Spencer in Contemp. Rev. XX. 317 The primary social differentiation which we have noted between the regulative part and the operative part, is presently followed by a distinction..between the internal arrangements of the two parts. 1903L. F. Ward Pure Sociol. ii. x. 202, I propose to use..the sufficiently vague..term race..for all the different kinds of social groups that were formed during the process of social differentiation. 1926C. C. North Social Differentiation i. 5 It is essential to any proper understanding of social differentiation that some effort be made to distinguish between the biological and the social in the sources or causes of social distinctions. 1971F. R. Allen Socio-Cultural Dynamics iii. 72 Social differentiation as a major view of change.
1891T. H. Huxley (title) Social diseases and worse remedies. 1907Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. July 20 (title) Prophylaxis of social diseases. 1945G. Endore Methinks the Lady vii. 138 What rights? Overtime pay, maybe? Union hours? Sure. Social security, maybe? Or social diseases? 1970Guardian 28 Apr. 10/1 Hard drugs addiction..is a contagious social disease. 1978R. Ludlum Holcroft Covenant xxvii. 314 She was probably an Odessa agent and you've come down with a social disease, as planned.
1920Thomas & Znaniecki Polish Peasant IV. i. 2 The question of social disorganization. We can define the latter briefly as a decrease of the influence of existing social rules of behavior upon individual members of the group. 1958M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour xi. 136 The evidence showing how the level of mental disorder increases with social disorganization.
1924R. E. Park in Jrnl. Appl. Sociol. VIII. 344 Prejudice is..a sort of spontaneous conservation which tends to preserve the social order and the social distances upon which that order rests. 1948M. Sherif Outl. Social Psychol. xiv. 341 The average..member of a group exhibits the degree of prejudice toward the member of another group prescribed by the social distance scale of his group. 1955G. Sircom tr. Hediger's Psychol. & Behaviour Captive Animals vi. 83 According to its species, each individual keeps at a greater or lesser distance from its group; that is, the group shows specific social distance. 1960Jrnl. Abnormal & Social Psychol. LXI. 110/1 Bogardus'..ordinal scale of social distance in which a subject indicated zero social distance by stating that he was willing to marry a member of a particular ethnic group, and maximum social distance by stating that he would exclude such a person from the country. 1966E. T. Hall Hidden Dimension x. 115 Desks in the offices of important people are large enough to hold visitors at the far phase of social distance. 1978P. Bailey Leisure & Class in Victorian Eng. iv. 105 The middle classes were acutely concerned to reinforce, not reduce, social distance.
1921Social document [see shot n.1 7 g (a)]. 1937S. Jameson in Fact May 87/1 Several times on the road to Wigan pier George Orwell stops to give us his frank opinion of socialists as he has met them... In the first part of the book he has provided a social document as vivid, bitter, and telling as one could have asked. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. p. v, This pioneer work and social document of first importance is..something of a curiosity. 1974Country Life 30 May 1339/3 This painting of the Lawn at Goodwood 1886..has been purchased by the Goodwood Trust for 7,000 gn. I find it a decided non-event in the world of art, but a social document of real importance. 1976New Yorker 12 Jan. 47/2 He's been boozing. And I don't mean he's just had a ‘social’ drink or two.
1969in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 84 Deep Harbour fishermen have traditionally celebrated Christmas by group visiting, whether as mummers or as ‘social drinkers’. 1977E. Leonard Unknown Man xiv. 120 I wasn't an alcoholic. I was a heavy social drinker.
1901B. S. Rowntree Poverty 316 This [public] house is evidently one where ‘social’ drinking is carried on. 1958Keller & Seeley Alcohol Lang. 22 Social drinking. 1. Moderate drinking on social occasions. 2. Drinking to comply with the expectation of companions. 3. Drinking in a way and within the limits accepted by a cultural group. 1969in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 82 At night throngs of ‘social-drinking’ men threading their way along the narrow footpaths sing between visits.
1843Social dynamics [see dynamics 1 b]. 1938B. Russell Power i. 11 The laws of social dynamics are laws which can only be stated in terms of power, not in terms of this or that form of power. 1974Howard Jrnl. XIV. 97 Over⁓crowding and..the introduction of strangers into the resident group, or other alterations in the social dynamics.
1900W. H. Tolman Industrial Betterment ii. 81 ‘Of course you are too busy..and..need someone on your staff whose sole business will be the planning and direction of movements to improve industrial conditions; in other words you need a social engineer.’ Social engineering is a new profession. 1980Gazette (Montreal) 22 Mar. 109/2 Woodward and Armstrong..revile the efforts of President and Congress to appoint Supreme Court judges who will not act as left-of-center social engineers.
1899Social Engineering Sept. 18 The following subjects were adopted for A Course of Lectures on Modern Social Problems... Social Engineering a New Profession. 1919M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism II. xiv. 287 The Fabian Society appears to form an institute for social engineering. 1945K. R. Popper Open Society I. ix. 138 The Platonic approach..can be called Utopian engineering, as opposed to that kind of social engineering..which may be described by the name of piecemeal engineering. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts May 351/2 A sort of extension of Architecture..as a vast subject in its own right with a powerful social-engineering content.
1843J. S. Mill Logic II. iv. v. 273 There is hardly a single name, expressive of any moral or social fact calculated to call forth strong affections.., which does not carry with it..a connotation of those strong affections. 1887Moore & Aveling tr. Marx's Capital I. i. 44 The mutual exchangeability of all kinds of useful private labour is an established social fact. 1938Solovay & Mueller tr. Durkheim's Rules Sociol. Method p. liii, We gave a definition of social facts as ways of acting or thinking with the peculiar characteristic of exercising a coercive influence on individual consciousnesses. 1977P. Laslett Family Life 2 History stands as much in need of a theory of itself as of any other form of generalization about social facts.
1929P. Geddes in Sociol. Rev. XXI. 7 It is a commonplace to every social geographer, that of all forms of rural development over Europe, it is the forest which most definitely thrives and prospers under collective ownership. 1980Verbatim Autumn 1/1 Social geographers are aware of this, of course; it is interesting to find concurrent evidence from a linguistic survey.
1907G. W. Hoke in Geogr. Jrnl. XXIX. 67 In addition to the physiographical group of factors which are by common consent held to be fundamental, the sociological factors are no less fundamental to social geography. 1929Huntington & Carlson Environmental Basis of Social Geogr. i. 5 Social geography examines it [sc. the relationship between man and his environment] from the point of view of man and his activities, that is, the social aspect.
1886C. O. Brown Talks on Labor Troubles i. 9 These views..are being read as a new social gospel by hundreds of thousands of people. 1890Dawn II. Suppl. 1 In man's relation to man, Jesus Christ preached a social gospel; accordingly, in those relations, his disciples must be socialists. 1917W. Rauschenbusch Theol. for Social Gospel i. 1 We have a social gospel. We need a systematic theology large enough to match it. Ibid. 2 The social gospel has become orthodox. Ibid. xix. 279 The social gospel is the voice of prophecy in modern life. 1958M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour v. 45 A small college at which it seems that a modernistic and social gospel was widely held among the staff. 1969A. Richardson Dict. Christian Theol. 313/2 The christology of the social gospel focuses on the way the divine life of Christ can get control of human society. Ibid., There were other conspicuous leaders of the social gospel.
1912A. Conan Doyle in Strand Mag. Dec. 603/1 There are few social historians of those days who have not told of the long and fierce struggle between..Sir Charles Tregellis and Lord Barrymore. 1973Listener 25 Oct. 571/1 Social historians must do the best they can with such evidence as they have.
1897Library Jrnl. Mar. 139 ‘Colonial Days in old New York’..is really of the social historical order rather than a book of travel. 1937Burlington Mag. June 310/1 The historical section..is sketchy..and its lack of concentration results in an apparent insufficiency of social-historical facts to explain stylistic changes. 1977A. Wilson Strange Ride of R. Kipling vii. 342, I prefer..a social-historical description of long generations of Evangelical belief ending in post-Darwinian doubt.
1856G. Roberts Social Hist. of People of Southern Counties of England in Past Centuries p. v, Researches..disclosed many particulars of the former condition of our countrymen... These have been made available for the express correction of a very general ignorance of our Social History that prevails. 1877L. H. Morgan Ancient Society ii. i. 50 It represents a striking phase of the ancient social history of our race. 1950McDougall & Cormack in C. Morris Social Casework in Great Britain ii. 40 The social history..is the essential basis of constructive help. It does not follow from this that..every client's story must be fully investigated. 1970D. C. Gibbons Delinquent Behaviour iii. 48 The social history document prepared by the probation officer..looms large in the disposition of the case. 1976W. Gérin Elizabeth Gaskell xiv. 152 From the point of view of social history, North and South is but a poor successor to the realities of Mary Barton.
1967Act Eliz. II c.80 §57 A court of any prescribed class shall before passing on any person a sentence to which the rules apply consider a social inquiry report, that is to say a report about him and his circumstances, made by a probation officer or any other person authorised to do so by the rules. 1977Grimsby Even. Tel. 27 May 13/1 The case had been adjourned for social inquiry and psychiatric reports.
1909C. R. Henderson Ann. Amer. Acad. Pol. & Social Sci. Mar. 265 It is time..to adopt some such description as ‘social insurance’ to cover the methods of guaranteeing income to wage earners and their families in case of sickness, accident, invalidism, feebleness of old age, death of the breadwinner and unemployment. Ibid. 270 No voluntary system of social insurance can be economically administered, save upon a foundation of compulsory insurance. 1922S. A. Queen Social Work in Light of Hist. xii. 209 The ideal purpose of social insurance is to prevent, and finally to eradicate poverty and the consequent need of relief by meeting the problem at its origin. 1970Internat. & Compar. Law Quarterly 4th Ser. XIX. ii. 301 The District Court of Kiel held that payments from a social insurance authority had to be set off against the child's right to maintenance against his father's heirs. 1977Times 10 Sept. 2/6 Research in this field is..a piece of social insurance.
1976R. Harris Three Candles for Dark iv. 27 I'm not a liar, or not a real one. A social liar, maybe, like everyone else.
1941Auden New Year Letter iii. 64 And yet although the social lie Looks double to the dreamer's eye. 1969M. Drabble Waterfall 94 She might have invented the information as a social lie (a felicitous duplicity). 1971W. Tute Tarnham Connection vii. 135 [He] said he was expected back home, which Mado knew to be a social lie.
1919Lancet 24 May 921/1 (heading) Social medicine in Vienna. 1925F. L. Dunham Approach to Social Medicine i. 14 A need arises in welfare work for a field of preventive science to which social science, psychology, psychiatry and various other departments shall contribute... It may be called Social Medicine. 1977Lancet 24 & 31 Dec. 1336/1 What has been the contribution of social medicine to social policy in general and to health-services policy in particular.
1925P. Sorokin in Social Forces May 635/2 We used to think that in the United States ‘social mobility’ was greatest. 1954D. V. Glass (title) Social mobility in Britain. 1978Listener 26 Jan. 107/2 The patterns of social mobility over the past generation.
1953K. W. Deutsch Nationalism & Social Communication vi. 114 If there is economic growth, social communication will probably spread and social mobilization will progress. 1961― in Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev. Sept. 493/1 Social mobilization is a name given to an overall process of change, which happens to substantial parts of the population in countries which are moving from traditional to modern ways of life.
1905E. A. Ross Foundations Sociol. viii. 182 The term..social morphology..will describe, not only human relations and groupings, but also their mutations in the course of time. 1960Amer. Sociol. Rev. XXV. 193/2 Durkheim proposed the examination and comparison of languages..in order to find ‘the manner in which social representations adhere to and repel one another’, and how any such ‘social morphology’ is to be explained.
1797Encycl. Brit. XVII. 570/2 Though social order is no longer unknown nor unobserved, yet the form of government is still extremely simple. 1817Cobbett Wks. XXXII. 109 The old charge, that we are seeking to produce riot and confusion, and to destroy ‘Social Order’! 1853H. Martineau tr. Comte's Positive Philos. II. vi. i. 6 A polity that could not hold its ground before the natural progress of intelligence and of society can never again serve as a basis of social order. 1909H. G. Wells Ann Veronica vi. 129, I know that our social order is dreadful enough..and sacrifices all that is best and most beautiful in life. 1920B. Russell Pract. & Theory Bolshevism i. ii. 28 He [sc. the Communist] is..aiming at the creation of a new social order. 1955M. Gluckman Custom & Conflict in Africa i. 17 What emerges, I think, is that if there are sufficient conflicts of loyalties at work, settlement will be achieved..and social order maintained. 1977P. Laslett Family Life i. 46 The traditional social order on our continent.
1950Proc. Co-operative Party Annual Conf. 47 The purpose of Socialism is to strengthen and expand the various forms of Social ownership and control, of which the Co-operative Movement is an outstanding example. 1961Encounter May 63/1 Of the alternative forms of social ownership, the Co-operative Movement is potentially the most attractive. 1984Economist 29 Sept. 16/2 ‘Social ownership’, a concept embracing co-operatives, worker buy-outs, profit-sharing and municipally-owned competitive enterprises. 1986Times 19 July 2/1 He [sc. Nigel Lawson] said Labour knew nationalization was unpopular which is why it had produced the phrase ‘social ownership’ but that would fool no one.
1835H. Reeve tr. de Tocqueville's Democracy in Amer. II. x. 429 If republican principles are to perish in America, they can only yield after a laborious social process. 1887[see process n. 5 b]. 1947Henderson & Parsons tr. Weber's Theory of Social & Econ. Organization i. 96 Charisma..is thus the bearer of many dynamic tendencies of social processes. 1974tr. Wertheim's Evolution & Revolution 164 The aim of this study is to deal with revolutions as social processes.
1966G. Tannenbaum in S. Arieti Amer. Handbk. Psychiatry xxxv. 577/1 The social psychiatric model is based on public health principles rather than on the traditional clinical prototype.
1964Observer 23 Aug. 1/1 The social psychiatrists..believe that the answers to mental health can only be found by..studying the patient in relation to the groups he moves in.
1924Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry LXXXI. 149 The Round Table Conferences..were well attended..36 formed the group which discussed problems of social psychiatry. 1958D. McK. Rioch in Symposium on Preventive & Social Psychiatry 1957 p. iv, The last two sessions..are devoted to organizational, therapeutic and other clinical developments of social psychiatry in recent years. 1976B. H. Kaplan et al. (title) Further explorations in social psychiatry.
1909W. M. Urban Valuation i. 2 A collection of social-psychological monographs. 1978Language LIV. 160 It is more surprising..that he does not refer to the rich social-psychological literature on language attitudes.
1899Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Mar. 661 To the social psychologist, however, it is evident that economic crises are phenomena that lie wholly within the psychical process of group-life. 1972M. Argyle Social Psychol. of Work i. 3 There are a number of very important social problems in industry today which fall into the sphere of the social psychologist.
1891E. A. Ross Let. 13 Dec. in Amer. Sociol. Rev. (1938) III. 364 Do we not need an Origin of Species in the dawn of Esthetic and Social Psychology? 1927Mod. Philology Nov. 213 Or, we may study the group, observing every act of a given type... This is social psychology. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Soc. Sciences 663/1 Only psychology and sociology include social psychology as part of their explicit subject-matter. 1977R. Holland Self & Social Context v. 167 On the other side of psychology stands sociology, sharing with psychology the field of social psychology, since there are sociologically trained and psychologically trained social psychologists.
1937L. Cheskin in Education Nov. 186/2 Current art..expresses mainly group action, mass movement, class struggle, not individual characters. The artists of today seek to express mainly social realism, not organic realism or naturalism. 1940C. Connolly in Horizon Feb. 70 The flight of Auden and Isherwood..is also a symptom of the failure of social realism as an aesthetic doctrine. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. p. xxix/4 The collapse of social realism from its heyday during the 1930s... Generally to-day..American art is aloof and bent on wrestling with private problems. Even Ben Shahn, the outstanding social realist of twenty years ago, has come to prefer the expression of emotion through symbolism of his own devising from which political satire is absent. 1972Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 27 May 14/3 The dismal social-realism caricatures that passed for art in the Thirties.
1940Social realist [see communist-inspired s.v. communist 3 b]. 1956New Yorker 14 Jan. 71/1 Perhaps the only really native Italian schools..are the one called Spazialismo..and a social-realist one. 1959[see social realism above]. 1976Listener 19 Aug. 218/3 Twenty years ago, the most modern artists in England were called the ‘kitchen-sink school’... John Berger wrote social realist reviews of their exhibitions.
1960Guardian 18 Oct. 5/5 The group has..a distinct social realistic bias.
1859D. Masson Brit. Novelists iv. 308 It may be that the representation of social reality is..the proper business of the Novel. 1887Moore & Aveling tr. Marx's Capital I. i. 15 The value of commodities has a purely social reality. 1949W. L. Warner in M. Fortes Social Structure 4 Agreement among the informants assures the status analyst that the social class sytem derived from their statements is..an ever present..social reality. 1978Language LIV. 449 It may be noted that O's social realities of the West German job market refer more to the over-employment of the 1960's than to the under-employment of the 1970's.
1889(title) Social Register, New York. 1945Seafarers' Log 6 July 6/4 The crew recommended that the ‘advantages’ of the social register be extended to William Chance and J. D. Bell, both trip carders. 1949Sat. Even. Post 15 Oct. 142/3 The student body..has a heavy sprinkling of millionaires' sons and Social Register families. 1981Newsweek 20 July 24 Martha von Bulow was pure Social Register, born into wealth, educated in the best private schools, and married for a time to an Austrian prince.
1953N. Tinbergen Herring Gull's World ii. 13 Colour can act as a ‘social releaser’ by releasing a response in another individual just as a call often does. 1962Listener 9 Aug. 207/2 In such tribes we see something very like social releasers.
1831J. S. Mill Ess. (1962) 20 There must be a moral and social revolution,..which shall leave to no man one fraction of unearned distinction or unearned importance. 1890W. Booth In Darkest England i. ix. 80 The Socialist tells me that the great Social Revolution is looming large on the horizon. 1910H. G. Wells New Machiavelli (1911) i. iv. 121 The social revolution and the triumph of the Proletariat after the class war. 1941Time 19 May 98/1 World War II is a social revolution, but not the kind of social revolution almost everybody thinks it is. 1974tr. Wertheim's Evolution & Revolution 173 However, true social revolutions in earlier times showed a religious component as well.
1928Psychol. Abstr. 889 Social role of language. 1949[see rôle 2]. 1977Social role [see role set s.v. rôle 4].
1905E. Wharton House of Mirth ii. viii. 417 Carry promised to find somebody who wants a kind of social secretary—you know she makes a speciality of the helpless rich. 1949‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xxii. 195 She moved him on from one group to another as expertly as a social secretary. 1978‘J. Horbury’ Diplomatic Affair i. iv. 43 ‘Never neglect placement if you wish to rise.’.. ‘By the time you rise to the point where it matters, some charming social secretary will worry about it for you.’
1925P. Sorokin Sociol. of Revol. xii. 250 Some of their members in two or three years cover an enormous distance in ‘social space’: from ordinary lawyers,..workers, peasants,..etc., they become persons..occupying high posts. 1927― Social Mobility i. 3 Persons near each other in geometrical space—e.g., a king and his servant..—are often separated by the greatest distance in social space. 1961J. N. Findlay Values & Intentions ix. 398 The first encounter with social space is normally that of a being without formed views, abilities or values, with a range of beings surpassingly mature,..decided, powerful and in general benign. 1977T. M. Kando Social Interaction xi. 260/1 The study of space becomes truly interesting when it is conceived of as social space.
1843Social statics [see dynamics 1 b]. 1851H. Spencer (title) Social statics. 1958A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Meth. in Social Anthropol. i. v. 128 For social anthropology the task is to formulate and validate statements about the conditions of existence of social systems (laws of social statics) and the regularities that are observable in social change (laws of social dynamics).
1927P. Sorokin Social Mobility ii. 11 Social stratification means the differentiation of a given population into hierarchically superposed classes. 1979G. Ritzer et al. Sociol. ix. 238 Their contention that because social stratification is universal, it must be a functional necessity.
1972P. Laslett Household & Family 58 In the relations of children to servants we may..find..important and revealing social structural differences.
1835H. Reeve tr. de Tocqueville's Democracy in Amer. I. v. 69 The Constitution of the United States..consists of two distinct social structures, connected, and..encased one within the other. 1872H. Spencer in Contemp. Rev. XX. 311 Social influences which..facilitate further aggregation with consequent further complexity of social structure. 1949M. Fortes Social Structure p. xiii, The study of kinship systems and..the concept of social structure. 1968Jacobson & Schoepf tr. Lévi-Strauss's Structural Anthropol. I. xv. 277 Studies in social structure have to do with the formal aspects of social phenomena.
a1854Mill Early Draft Autobiogr. (1961) 108 The social studies of myself and several of my companions assumed a shape which contributed very much to my mental development. 1926B. Webb My Apprenticeship v. 217 A subtle combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis is a necessary factor in social studies. 1938S. Chase Tyranny of Words vii. 78 The social studies are..backward compared to the physical sciences. 1977Lancashire Life Nov. 136/3 In some schools R.E. is lumped together with history and geography and called Humanities or Social Studies.
1927Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. XXXIII. 424 (title) The social survey of Tyneside: an English regional social survey. 1948[see participant n. 1]. 1956B.B.C. Handbk. 1957 106 Two major enquiries by this section, both making use of social-survey methods. 1979J. MacKenzie Victorian Courtship iii. 40 Mary Booth..welcomed the help Beatrice [Potter] proposed to give her husband in his ambitious social survey.
1782‘J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur’ Lett. from Amer. Farmer iii. 50 New laws, a new mode of living, a new social system. 1853H. Martineau tr. Comte's Positive Philos. II. vi. i. 11 The passage from one social system to another can never be continuous and direct. 1917Kipling Diversity of Creatures 335, I cannot think it right that any human being should exercise mastery over others in the merciless fashion our tom-fool social system permits. 1951E. E. Evans-Pritchard Social Anthropol. i. 11 The social anthropologist studies societies as wholes. He studies their oecologies, their economics.., their technologies, their arts, etc. as parts of general social systems. 1971P. Worsthorne Socialist Myth vii. 143 Socialism has a conception of the role of government which can only be realized in a social system that exalts authority.
1797in J. Gloag Short Dict. Furniture (1969) 626 A Gentleman's social table. 1952Ibid. 436 Social table, a small, kidney-shaped table with four legs, and a revolving, cylindrical receptacle for wine bottles, supported on a pillar-and-claw stand, which fitted into the concave curve of the table... It allowed two or three people to sit with their wine near a fire. 1962‘M. Innes’ Connoisseur's Case xvi. 190 A gentleman's social table by Hepplewhite.
1873H. Spencer Study of Sociol. xv. 372 No one doubts that the spendthrift or the gambler..is inferior as a social unit. a1899[see super-organism s.v. super- 6 b]. 1907W. James Pragmatism vi. 232 Must my thoughts dwell night and day on my personal sins and blemishes..or may I sink and ignore them in order to be a decent social unit? 1939Auden in I Believe (1940) 26 Recent technical advances, such as cheap electrical power, are making smaller social units more of a practical possibility than they seemed fifty years ago. 1978Country Life 17 Aug. 467/1 The family as a social unit.
1969Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 14 Mar. 5/1 Wage rises might have been slightly checked but ‘the social wage’ has gone up steadily... ‘The social wage’, in plain English, means Government hand-outs, the exact opposite of a wage. 1971Guardian 7 July 12/4 The real social wage of many low-paid workers has been adversely affected. 1975M. Thatcher in Let Children Grow Tall (1977) 18 People..complain that government takes too much of their incomes for what is now called the ‘Social Wage’—the estimated annual value of the services provided out of public funds for each individual. 1977Daily News (Perth, Austral.) 19 Jan. 8/1 If, on becoming a mother, every woman became entitled to a social wage of $100 a week, tax free, then this might achieve a great deal in terms of righting the lot of some women.
1892L. F. Ward Let. 17 Mar. in Amer. Sociol. Rev. (1938) June 371 (heading) The social will. 1911J. Ward Realm of Ends vi. 118 Is there in any exact sense a social spirit, a social will, a social end, a social conscience? 1942R. G. Collingwood New Leviathan xxi. 152 There is always a discrepancy between the social will and its products.
B. n.
†1. A companion, associate. Obs. rare.
1632Lithgow Trav. x. 426 O Socials! we're not ignorant of losses.
2. A social gathering or party, esp. one held by members of a club or association.
1870Mainland Guardian (New Westminster, Brit. Columbia) 8 Jan. 3/4 A very pleasant Social was given by the ladies and friends in our new mission church on Christmas day. 1876E. W. Clark Life Japan 124 The women..keep their tongues going as briskly during the tea-picking as their sisters of other climes..do at their tea-drinking socials. 1893The Month Aug. 157 The social given by the ladies of the Altar Society was a grand success.
3. ellipt. for social security 1 a or b. colloq.
1981Times 20 May 3/8 I'm getting two wages, one from prison, and one from the social. 1983J. Wainwright Their Evil Ways 17 They were both ‘on the social’. Ibid. 26 She applied for extra ‘social’. She was..sure she was entitled to some extra.
Add:[12.] social dialect Linguistics, a dialect spoken by a particular social group or class.
1949H. Kurath Word Geogr. Eastern U.S. 7 This leveling of social differences inevitably entailed a leveling of *social dialects. 1971Allen & Underwood Readings in Amer. Dialectol. 355 Social dialects include not only the dialects of various social classes but also the special argots and cants of certain sub-cultures existing within and yet outside our society. 1975F. West Way of Lang. 50 Social dialects may reflect different levels of education, wealth, social position, job or profession, or even the speaker's home location. 1986C. E. Billiard in Montgomery & Bailey Lang. Variety in South 365 (title) Correlates among social dialects, language development, and reading achievement of urban children.
Add:[A.] [12.] social chapter, a social charter forming part of the Maastricht Treaty (see *Maastricht n.).
1991Independent 5 Dec. 12/6 The treaty's *social chapter is probably the single most difficult area. Because it deals with areas of everyday life that everyone can relate to it is politically high-profile. 1992Economist 28 Mar. 9/2 One example is the social charter (now called the social chapter), which will lay down EC-wide rules on working hours, health and safety at work, maternity leave and so on. 1993Times 1 June 17/1 Mr Major..promised that he would protect British industry from excessive labour market regulation with his famous opt-out from the social chapter.
social charter, a document dealing with social policy, esp. workers' rights and welfare; spec. that signed in December 1989 by eleven European Union member states, and later forming the basis of the social chapter of the Maastricht Treaty.
1983Washington Post 18 Aug. b 7/1 Barry said the ‘*social charter’ forged during King's 1963 march ‘is in serious trouble’. 1989Independent 31 Oct. 1/4 Britain yesterday lost all hope of recruiting last-minute allies in its fight against the European Community's proposed Social Charter after labour ministers voted by 11 to one to forward a final draft for adoption at the December EC summit in Strasbourg. 1991Economist 23 Nov. 124/1 The 11 governments which signed the social charter approve of such worker-employer consultation. The British government, on the other hand, considers it the kind of corporatist claptrap which nearly sank the British economy in the 1960s and 1970s. 1992Globe & Mail (Toronto) 1 Feb. a1/1 Two of Canada's business leaders became unexpected supporters yesterday of a ‘social charter’ in a rewritten Constitution.
▸ social capital n. the interpersonal networks and common civic values which influence the infrastructure and economy of a particular society; the nature, extent, or value of these.
1835Western Messenger Aug. 104 [They] would gladly engraft on an earnest, healthy state of society, the follies and the vices of a luxurious and decaying monarchy. Although none of the *social capital is in such hands or heads. 1886Science 24 Sept. 283/1 A great city is a corporation, a body politic. This complex organization..suffers waste which is dead loss of social capital and resource. 1961J. Jacobs Death & Life of Great Amer. Cities 138 These networks are a city's irreplaceable social capital. 1991European Sociol. Rev. 7 197/1 This holds both for getting their offspring through the system by meritocratic means, as well as making use of the family's total social capital through alternative channels. 2001J. G. Stein Cult of Efficiency i. 14 Robert Putnam..has argued that civic engagement—citizens coming together to participate in public space on public issues—is a precondition for the creation of ‘social capital’.
▸ social care n. the provision by society of what is necessary for the health and welfare of a person or group of people; spec. any of various types of support or supervision provided by social workers and allied professionals, typically (esp. opposed to health care) excluding the medical treatment of existing conditions; (also, in later use) such provision considered as a profession or a subject for academic study.
1846De Bow's Rev. Sept. 147 How essential, then, to continue to impress upon men the knowledge of the laws which are necessary for the preservation of these, the greatest of the objects of *social care—which teach the fathers of the family the obligations which they owe their children and their wives, and which government owes them. 1902Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 7 502 The first article treats the general assumptions of social care of the poor. 1938H. Macmillan Middle Way iii. 36 We have added enormously to our expenditure on social care..and sought new methods of financing it, both out of increased taxation and by the adoption of the contributory system. 1966G. W. Brown et al. (title) Schizophrenia and social care. 1998Community Care 30 Apr. 39/1 (advt.) Working closely with a committed and enthusiastic group of staff who work flexibly and creatively with vulnerable people at the sharp end of the interface of Health and Social Care.
▸ social cleansing n. the removal by a dominant social group of other (esp. disadvantaged) social groups which it regards as undesirable; (later also spec.) = ethnic cleansing n.; cf. cleansing n.
1976D. J. Olsen Growth of Victorian London iv. 147 Long before the very rich began to covet converted workmen's cottages the *social cleansing of Chelsea had begun. 1986Los Angeles Times 12 Oct. 6/5 Lifton suggests various explanations for the ability of men who regarded themselves as healers to administer death. There was, of course, the ideology of social cleansing; for us, at least, a special case, and a remote one. 1994Independent on Sunday 30 Jan. 15/1 In growing numbers, the unemployed and homeless, thieves, street children, tramps, prostitutes and homosexuals are being murdered by the police and hired death squads. Colombians call it ‘social cleansing’... Amnesty puts the numbers killed by social cleansing in the thousands. 2001Evening Standard (Nexis) 29 Mar. 18 They fear that his plans for urban renaissance will lead to the ‘social cleansing’ of Western cities and the sweeping away of the poor.
▸ social exclusion n. exclusion from human society (or from a specific milieu); spec. exclusion or isolation from the prevalent social system and its rights and privileges, esp. as a result of poverty or membership of a particular social group.
1831Addr. Different Parts Ireland 1828–9 224 The spirit of political monopoly and *social exclusion. 1874H. Sidgwick Methods of Ethics (ed. 6) ii. v. 151 The hope of praise and liking and services from one's fellowmen, and the fear of forfeiting these and incurring instead aversion, refusal of aid, and social exclusion. 1945Jrnl. Politics May 196 Germany..adamantly maintained barriers of social exclusion long after the ghettos had passed. 1998Town & Country Planning 67 7/3 Deliberately under-planning for new homes is a social exclusion issue: the poor will have to squash up, take on the burden of care of the elderly, and live where there is no work.
▸ social market n. (a) a society regarded as a marketplace, esp. as an arena for the acquisition of information or exchange of ideas; (b) Polit. and Polit. Econ. short for social market economy n. at Additions (usu. attrib.).
1846T. Brown Lect. Philos. Mind IV. 269 Can we expect fidelity of a mind that thinks only of what is to be gained by vice, in the great *social market of moral feelings. 1936Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 46 356 Most of the remedies current in the political and social market today leave the people cold because they do not show any appreciation of the difficulties which their acceptance involves. 1975Times 11 Feb. 13/1 Such a policy ought to be modelled on the one successful postwar anti-inflationary economic policy, Dr. Erhard's social market policy, a label which has been given to Sir Keith Joseph's policies. 1992Daily Tel. 24 July 17/2 Hunt says he has always believed in the social market, which he defines as ‘one-nation Conservatism with teeth’. 1995M. Lind Next Amer. Nation v. 196 Each First World country has had its own ‘social market contract’ between labor, capital, and the government, a contract that replaces free-market capitalism, to varying degrees, with ‘social market’ capitalism.
▸ social market economy n.after German soziale Marktwirtschaft (A. Müller-Armack 1948, in Ordo 1 148) Polit. and Polit. Econ. an economic system based on a free market operated in conjunction with state provision for those unable to sell their labour, such as the elderly or the unemployed (cf. market economy n. at market n. Compounds 2).
Originally applied to the set of economic policies employed in the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War.
1950Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 44 1075 Miksch, Leonard, et al. Der Schutz der Wettbewerbs in der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft... Report of a German conference on the problem of cartels and competition in the German ‘*social market economy’. 1975R. Lewis Margaret Thatcher xiii. 157 The ‘social market economy’ as the alternative to Socialism... In essence it means the economy of free market capitalism for the strong..backed by a compassionate state which caters for the weak. 2006Foreign Affairs Sept.–Oct. 168/2 Comparing the performances of liberal market economies (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the social market economies (in Austria, Germany,..and the Nordic countries).
▸ social marketing n. the application of commercial marketing techniques and strategies to a campaign for social change, esp. to enhance the effectiveness of health education programmes.
1971P. Kotler & G. Zaltman in Jrnl. Marketing 35 3/2 Some persons would be heartened because of the many good causes in need of an effective *social marketing strategy... Social marketing is a promising framework for planning and implementing social change. 1988Health Policy & Planning 3 183/2 In Indonesia, social marketing improved nutrition knowledge. 1996Health Educ. Res. 11 260/1 Although market segmentation techniques are frequently applied to the promotion of consumer products, there are precedents for their use in social marketing contexts.
▸ social phobia n. (a) an irrational fear held by a society as a whole (rare); (b) Psychiatry a disorder characterized by extreme anxiety about, and usually avoidance of, specific social situations or general social contact, esp. because of fear of possible embarrassment or criticism; (also) a specific fear of a social situation held by a person with this disorder.
1917Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 14 412 Consciousness of ends is the cure of *social phobias, because consciousness of ends is the key to self-control, in the state as in the individual. 1967Jrnl. Psychosomatic Res. 11 272 Patients with social phobias. The anxiety experienced by these patients was provoked by social situations e.g. eating in public,..speaking in public and being engaged in conversation by strangers. 2001Observer 25 Mar. (Life Suppl.) 15/1 He was diagnosed with ‘social phobia’ and learned through therapy that he had developed a deep-rooted fear of being ridiculed in public.
▸ social promotion n. (a) advancement in social class or standing (perh. not a fixed collocation in early use); (b) Educ. (chiefly U.S.) the promotion of a pupil to a more advanced class based on his or her age or behaviour, despite a lack of appropriate academic achievement.
1840R. Mudie Man, in his Relations to Society iii. 107 The only alternative to the begging is obtaining the *social promotion by fraud. 1899‘M. Twain’ Christian Sci. (1907) ii. vii. 201 She once prized money for the ease and comfort it could bring, the showy vanities it could furnish, and the social promotion it could command. 1948Washington Post 16 Sept. 10/5 And too many high schools either cannot or do not teach at the level they should. Due to social promotion or mass education, the students get no basis. 1975N.Y. Times 18 Mar. 23/2 Social promotion has meant that fewer children are held back, making the test group at each grade younger than it used to be. 1998S. Ferchiou in R. A. Lobban Middle Eastern Women & Invisible Econ. iii. ix. 194 Women's work remains depreciated and affords them no possibility of social promotion. 2001D. Milbank Smashmouth i. iii. 30 His solutions for these big goals, not surprisingly, are small proposals—an end to social promotion here, a mentoring program there. |