sociabilityn.
/ˌsəʊʃəˈbɪlᵻti/, U.S. /ˌsoʊʃəˈbɪlᵻdi/ 1.
a. Chiefly in plural. A sociable act or expression.
ΚΠ
a1500 (a1471) G. Ashby Active Policy Prince l. 270 in Poems (1899) 21 He shall appere false and sedicious, Be al quaint socibbilitees and labour.
1812 J. J. Henry Accurate Acct. Campaign against Quebec 134 Civil wars which extinguish the sociabilities of mankind.
1895 Atlantic Monthly July 108/2 Three, four, five, and even seven [canals] will similarly fall in on the same spot,—a sociability which..takes place all over the surface of the planet.
1962 L. Mumfood in B. MacKaye New Explor. (new ed.) Introd. p. xvi I know no one who has a better appreciation of the fine sociabilities of life.
2000 A. Rifkin Ingres Then & Now iii. 130 His calm, almost motherly patron-sitter, who sees him through the ordeal of yet another unsought-for engagement with the sociabilities of modern life.
b. The fact or quality of being sociable; esp. friendliness, affability.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [noun] > state or quality of being sociable
sociability1581
sociableness1592
outgoingness1865
get-togetherness1906
folksiness1931
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. 152 Doth he not shew forth an euident sociabilitie and liklyhood, that he will be very well to be liued withall?
1595 W. Allen et al. Conf. Next Succession Crowne of Ingland i. i. 3 Sociability or inclination to liue togeather in company.
1629 E. Bolton Cities Aduocate iv. 43 Henrie the seuenth his admirable sociabilitie, or configuration of himselfe to popular formes.
1657 J. Bramhall Castigations Mr. Hobbes iii. 570 All other Writers of Politicks do derive Common-wealths from the sociability of nature, which is in mankind, most truely.
1738 W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses I. ii. vi. 275 Such then was the Root and Foundation of this Sociability of Religion in the ancient World, so much envied by our modern Infidels.
1786 F. Burney Diary 12 Aug. (1842) III. 88 We were flung, by this means, into a style of sociability we might else never have arrived at.
1880 F. Marryat Fair-haired Alda II. v. 82 They were wofully disappointed by the results of their intended sociability.
1947 H. von Hentig Crime vi. 138 Social stability seems to be linked exclusively with peaceableness, sociability, conformity to mores and laws.
1976 J. D. Andrew Major Film Theories vi. 135 It illustrates..an important aspect of his personality, the sociability of his scholarship.
2000 M. Hughes World Food: Ireland 130 Banter is the fibre of sociability and ‘slagging’ is a national pastime.
2. Ecology. The extent to which the plants of a species are found in proximity to one another.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by habitat or distribution > [noun] > proximity to one another
sociability1921
1921 Bot. Gaz. 71 404 He asserts that the ‘sociological value’ of species depends upon their abundance, dominance, sociability, constancy, affiliation (fidélité), and genetic importance.
1961 H. C. Hanson & E. D. Churchill Plant Community iii. 97 Species that spread only by seed may also show a high degree of sociability, especially in the early stages of succession, as in abandoned fields where certain annual weeds may become very dense.
1973 P. A. Colinvaux Introd. Ecol. v. 65 Zea mays..had a cover abundance rating of only ‘3’ since, although the commonest plant, it by no means covered nearly all the ground as it must to rate a ‘5’, and a sociability of ‘1’, earned because it was evenly spaced and thus the extreme loner.
2007 Aquatic Bot. 87 257 (caption) The numbers represent the Braun-Blanquet index of abundance and sociability.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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