socialadj.n.
/ˈsəʊʃl/, U.S. /ˈsoʊʃ(ə)l/ A. adj.† 2. Devoted to home life; domestic. Obsolete.† 7.
1. Designating a war fought between allies. Cf. civil adj. 1.† b. gen. Of a war: fought between members of a political alliance. Obsolete. rare.
a. Usually with capital initial.
(a) Roman History. Designating the war fought between Rome and its Italian allies from 91–87 b.c.
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a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1872) IV. 155 Silla þe consul wente into Campania aȝenst Metridas and was in Campania forto destroye al þe relif of þe bataille þat heet sociale [?a1475 anon tr. the batelle socialle; L. socialis belli].
1679 J. Davies tr. Appian Hist. ii. i. 16 Mean while began the Social War, by the conspiracy of all the Nations of Italy.
1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. 159 When, after the social war, all the burghers of Italy were admitted free citizens of Rome.
1842 W. C. Taylor Student's Man. Anc. Hist. (ed. 3) xv. §6. 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.
1949 Oxf. Classical Dict. 541/2 The Marsi..took the initiative in demanding Roman citizenship in the Social War.
2002 C. Amery & B. Curran Lost World of Pompeii 18 The colonization of Pompeii after the Social War essentially became its Romanization.
(b) Ancient Greek History. Designating the war fought between Athens and its allies, from 357–355 b.c.The rebellious allies included Cos, Rhodes, and Chios.
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1559 T. Lanquet et al. Epitome of Chron. f. 59v In Grece, the warre, called Sociall, beganne among the cities.
1633 E. Grimeston tr. Polybius Hist. i. 2 As for the Actions, and first of the Grecians, wee will begin with the sociall warre.
1732 T. Dawson in tr. Aeschines & Demosthenes Orations conc. Crown Pref. sig. a8 At this Time, the Social War, frequently mentioned by our Orators, broke out, which gave Philip [of Macedon] great Advantages for the carrying on his Designs.
1838 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece V. xliii. 259 Philip seems to have kept aloof from the Social War.
1902 H. C. Butler Story of Athens x. 340 The Social War saw the end of Timotheus's brilliant career.
2003 J. Buckler Aegean Greece in 4th Cent. ix. 379 Although Mausolos usually receives the blame for starting the Social War, he instead far more likely took personal advantage of Greek disaffection.
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c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) xx. 132 There vas ane vthir sort of battelis amang the romans callit battellis socialis, that is quhen tounis of ane cuntre makkis veyr contrar vthirs.
1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 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.
1700 T. Southerne Fate of Capua i. i Is there a worthier than a social war?
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c1484 J. de Caritate tr. Secreta Secret. (Takamiya) 190 He is hardy as a lyon..and meke as a turtyl, malycious as a leenes, homely and socyal [L. domesticus] as a dowe.
a1500 (c1410) Dives & Pauper (Hunterian) (1976) i. 339 (MED) Þe soget owith to obeyyn to his souereyn..þe wif to hyr housebonde in þingis þat longyn to matrimonye & social lyuynge.
3.
a. Of a person: friendly or affable in company; disposed to conversation and sociable activities; sociable. Also of a person's general disposition. Also with to, with.
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society > [adjective] > living in society > capable of
social1562
liveable1829
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [adjective] > sociable
companablea1387
familiarc1425
fellowlyc1425
companiable1440
fellowable1440
fellowlikec1454
accompanable1548
sociable1573
companionable1593
associable1611
conversablea1684
social1698
easy1714
gregarious1789
aggregative1837
company keeping1839
folksy1852
oncoming1925
mixy1942
outgoing1950
1562 N. Winȝet Last Blast Trompet in Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 45 The proude schismatikis and obstinat heretikis, na wayis sociale to the companie of Christiane Catholiks.
a1600 (?c1535) tr. H. Boece Hist. Scotl. (Mar Lodge) (1946) f. 199 Vnder coloure of amyte he was slane be tresson of Alect..feneȝeing to be sociale with Carance in all his affaris.
1601 R. Johnson Ess. f. 51 It is best to bee sociall in shew, but precise in effect.
1698 R. Ferguson View Ecclesiastick 35 Their Irreligious Opinion, that Preaching..is..no ways upheld and Practic'd for the making People either better Men, more social Neighbours, or firmer in their Loyalty to their Prince.
1730 A. Pope On General Withers in Grub-St. Jrnl. 17 Dec. Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove Thy martial spirit, or thy social love!
1776 T. Paine Common Sense iv. 65 A few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landmen in the common work of a ship.
1790 A. Adams Let. 3 Apr. (1947) 44 The Genll is always very civil polite and social with me.
1816 J. Austen Emma I. ii. 26 His own friendly and social disposition. View more context for this quotation
1878 M. E. Braddon Eleanor's Victory ii He was very happy and social.
1901 Virginia Law Reg. 7 12 He was extremely social in disposition, friendly with everybody, and universally popular.
1950 Post-Register (Idaho) 6 Apr. 21/2 Any number of ‘charm schools’ thrive on transforming backwoodsy newcomers into highly desirable social characters.
1972 Asian Folklore Stud. 31 54 The social temperament of the Baiga makes him adorable to the people.
2002 G. M. Campbell Bulletproof Presentations ix. 85 She is a very social person, and for her to be alone was quite unusual.
b. Of a group of people, an organization, etc.: consisting or composed of people associated together for friendly interaction or companionship.
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society > society and the community > social relations > [adjective] > consisting of people in
social1737
1737 H. Hyde Ode to Earl of Chesterfield 9 Persuasion decks your Words with ev'ry Art, To lead the social Band in sportive Wit.
1792 N. 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.
1832 J. Taylor Rec. my Life I. xx. 249 There was one very extraordinary character who used to join the literary and social set at the Turk's Head Coffee-house.
1866 Month 4 54 The social body at Balliol was strengthened between 1830 and 1840 by three important additions.
1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 652 The club is strictly a ‘social’ one.
1935 Burlington Mag. Apr. 161/2 All social circles allied to the Court.
1966 J. Cleary High Commissioner ix. 185 He..belonged to none of the social clubs. He played golf..at a public course.
2004 Gay Times Feb. 241 But we aren't a nocturnal caravan-hopping club. We're strictly a social group.
c. Of a building or room: used for communal and recreational activities; (also) characterized by friendly interaction. Cf. social centre n. at Compounds 2.
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society > society and the community > social relations > [adjective] > used for
social1762
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > room > room by type of use > [adjective] > other spec.
best1663
good1809
social1861
1762 C. Johnstone Reverie II. xiv. 66 Trophies, won by feats of hardiest prowess, graced our social halls.
1823 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 13 329/1 At once was hush'd the social Hall.
1861 Congregational Q. Apr. 181/1 The lecture-room is occupied by the main body of the Sabbath School; the social rooms by the Infant Department.
1950 D. Thomas Let. c11 Mar. (1987) 751 I am writing to you now, lying in bed, in the Roman Princess's sister's rich social house, in a posh room that is hell on earth.
1975 C. 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.
2003 Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune (Nexis) 8 June 11 Don Gunn points out the selection of art and the use of pecky pecan to warm the large social room.
4. † b. Expressive of or proceeding from sympathy; sympathetic. Obsolete.
a. Marked or characterized by friendliness, geniality, or companionship with others; enjoyed, taken, carried out, etc., in the company of others.
(a) Of communication, interaction, an activity, etc.
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society > society and the community > social relations > [adjective] > characterized by or affording
social1576
intercommunicativea1641
conversing1643
the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [adjective]
social1576
companionable1658
1576 T. Rogers Philos. Disc. Anat. Minde sig. Aaiij The last kinde of freendship is called Sociall or Fellowly freendship.
1611 E. Aston tr. J. Boemus Manners, Lawes, & Customes ii. viii. 93 They [sc. the Indians] ought to eate and drinke all at one houre, for such things they coniecture doe best dispose them to social & ciuil conuersation.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost viii. 429 Thou in thy secresie although alone, Best with thy self accompanied, seek'st not Social communication. View more context for this quotation
1695 J. Howe Disc. Much-lamented Death Queen Mary 35 Unless one would..reduce joynt, social Worship, wherein all are..to express their Unanimity and Consent, unto that which is meerly Solitary and Single.
1773 J. Boswell Jrnl. 30 Aug. in Jrnl. Tour Hebrides (1785) 142 His benevolent, gay, social intercourse.
1794 A. Radcliffe Myst. of Udolpho III. xi. 375 The spacious fire-places, where no mark of social cheer remained.
1810 A. Boswell Edinburgh 25 When met, to drink a social cup of tea.
1864 C. Dickens Let. Mar. (1998) X. 370 They want social rest and social recreation for themselves and their families.
1887 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 2 Apr. 754/1 To call twice in one week, under the pretence..of a social visit.
1946 L. P. Hartley Sixth Heaven iii. 67 We saw him chattering away... He loves the social round.
1959 B. Bernardi Mugwe i. 6 Social intercourse between the main section of the Tharaka and the Thagichu has never been broken off.
1993 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 17 May (Insert) 3/4 The people whose buzz makes work a social activity as well as a commercial one.
2007 Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch (Nexis) 14 Oct. g2 Women of the 19th century placed importance in the tradition of tea as a way to..engage in social conversation.
(b) Of an event or function.
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society > leisure > social event > [adjective]
social1719
1719 G. Sewell Epist. from Hampstead 6 Lowly I sing in legendary Lays..'Till Fortune shall our social Nights renew.
1785 R. Graves Eugenius I. x. 56 Having heard the doctor..pronounced the life of every social meeting, I made his character my particular study.
1857 C. Dickens Little Dorrit ii. xiv. 441 He took pains, on all social occasions, to draw Mr Sparkler out.
1877 Independent 8 Feb. 4/3 The social event of the season!
1915 F. M. Hueffer Good Soldier iii. iv. 178 He would dine and pass the evening..at social functions of one kind or another.
1973 Washington Post 13 Jan. c2/3 Washington Post reporter Dorothy McCardle was excluded from five previous social events involving President and Mrs. Nixon.
2003 I. Stewart Rough Guide Ibiza & Formentera (ed. 2) iii. 123 The Day of the Drums is a spectacular occasion, and one of the premier social celebrations for Ibiza's hippy denizens.
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the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [adjective] > sympathetic
fellow-feeling1594
sympathetic1684
sympathizing1684
social1726
1726 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey IV. xvi. 236 The Prince..Hung round his neck, while tears his cheek bedew; Nor less the father pour'd a social flood.
1747 W. Collins Odes 35 Where'er from Time Thou court'st Relief, The Muse shall still, with social Grief, Her gentlest Promise keep.
c. Of or relating to (the activities of) fashionable or wealthy society. Cf. society n. 7c.
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society > society and the community > social class > the common people > specific classes of common people > fashionable society > [adjective]
townishc1450
of mode1676
fashionable1712
smart1719
high-lifed1733
social1741
high-lived1757
West Endish1855
Fifth Avenue1858
mundane1904
societified1912
Park Avenue1923
1741 S. Boyse in G. Ogle et al. tr. G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales II. 19 Go boast thee of the Style, Whose social Titles sordid Thoughts defile.
1785 Asylum for Fugitive Pieces (new ed.) 227 Where dames undone at social ruin smile.
1844 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 22 June 385/1 The pride of class and individual state tend to make many members of the social scene appear extremely unimportant.
1873 A. Trollope Eustace Diamonds III. lxxviii. 331 The police..had..succeeded in sending two scoundrels out of the social world, probably for life.
1925 Ladies' 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.
1977 G. Scott Hot Pursuit v. 51 Little country towns where the social calendar revolved gently around race meetings and the seasons.
2000 Independent (Nexis) 30 Aug. 10 What does one of life's most hard-bitten losers do when suddenly he's being feted as the chattering classes' social darling?
5.
a. Of or relating to society, as social background, social climate, social duty, social fabric, social issue, social question, social virtue, etc.
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society > [adjective]
civilc1443
social1579
sociable1641
civic1655
societal1843
societary1844
worldward1848
macrosocial1969
1579 J. Stubbs Discouerie Gaping Gulf sig. D8 According to that one great social law emong others, which is, that frends and enemies must be common.
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 1335 Needs there must be beside and without him, other gods and other worlds, unto whom and which he may extend those sociall vertues that he hath.
1695 J. Locke Some Thoughts conc. 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.
1726 Bp. J. Butler 15 Serm. i. 23 The Nature of Man considered in his..social Capacity leads him to a right Behaviour in Society.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 180. ⁋5 He that devotes himself to retired study naturally sinks from omission to forgetfulness of social duties.
1792 tr. J. Necker Ess. True Princ. Executive Power Great States vi. 81 The English nation was not willing that the essential foundations of the social fabric should be shaken at every interval.
1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature (1799) II. 411 The social reason quickly recals him to personal interest.
1801 M. Edgeworth Belinda II. xvi. 135 His social prejudices were such as..to supply the place of the power and habit of reasoning.
1836 A. Combe Physiol. Digestion Pref. p. ix The degree to which its morbid derangements undermine health, happiness, and social usefulness.
1857 Edinb. Rev. 106 223 Goethe's early experiences at first led him to view the whole social fabric with contempt.
1872 J. Morley Voltaire i. 9 Pale unshapen embryos of social sympathy.
1899 Folk-Lore Mar. 75 Races world-divided in their range and their social conceptions.
1920 Fort Wayne (Indiana) News & Sentinel 13 Sept. Watson is a non-descript in politics, an extremist in his social views.
1938 L. MacNeice I crossed Minch ix. 130 A mind must be conditioned by education and social context.
1940 Economist 5 Oct. 428/1 More than two decades of extremely divergent developments in contrasting social climates had to be undone.
1969 R. A. Soloway Prelates & People vi. 205 The Bishop of London..had generally remained silent on social questions throughout the remainder of the decade.
1990 New Scientist 28 July 56/4 I noticed more of Wallace's equal interest in man and social issues in parallel with his account of the natural history.
2007 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 3 Feb. c4 It used to be that social background or family money determined one's educational and career advancement.
b. Of life or a way of living: characterized by association in groups or communities. Cf. sense A. 6a.
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1689 tr. B. de Spinoza Treat. Theol. Polit. iv. 90 This Divine natural Law, is understood only in consideration of human Nature, and we may as well conceive it in any other Man as in Adam, and as well in a Man who lives a solitary, as in one that leads a social Life.
1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. 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.
1765 M. Akenside Pleasures Imag. ii. 82 Science herself: on whom the wants and cares Of social life depend.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. 56 In their native deserts,..it is probable they [sc. ostriches] live chiefly upon vegetables, where they lead an inoffensive and social life.
1861 J. S. Mill Utilitarianism iii. 46 The social state is..so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man.
1868 J. E. T. Rogers Man. Polit. Econ. xiv. 183 The condition of social life is that different persons should be engaged in different pursuits.
1935 T. N. Carver Essent. Factors Social Evol. v. 137 Certain anatomical features of the human body have evolved in connection with a social mode of life. Vocal organs, for instance.
1974 tr. W. F. Wertheim Evol. & Revol. 91 In looking for the structural features of social life we look first for the existence of social groups of all kinds.
c. Of an institution or mechanism: of, belonging to, or concerned with the organization of society; that constitutes society, as social apparatus, social framework, social institution, etc. Cf. social structure n. at Compounds 2.Recorded earliest in social system n. at Compounds 2.
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1742 tr. Medit. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ix. 217 As you are a completing part of a social system [Gk. πολιτικοῦ συστήματος], so also let every action of your's be a completing part of a social life [Gk. ζωῆς πολιτικῆς].
1784 R. Hey Diss. Duelling ii. 30 The Principle..upon which they [sc. violent individuals] proceed, is directly subversive of every social Institution.
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes v. 157 Surely there is no kind of government, constitution, revolution, social apparatus or arrangement, that I know of in this world, so promising to one's scientific curiosity as this.
1911 J. R. MacDonald Socialist Movement iv. 80 Co-operation on the largest and most complete scale was the social mechanism through which alone Christianity could work.
1949 M. Fortes Social Struct. 55 The British House of Commons is a familiar instance of growth in social institutions and organization.
1983 K. W. Back in R. F. Kidd & M. J. Sacks Adv. in Appl. Social Psychol. II. i. 14 Workers in applied social psychology have been aware that they work within a social framework.
2007 Daily Tel. 27 Mar. 15/2 We have a society in which the connections between young people and parents, school and other social institutions have become more tenuous.
d. Of, referring, or relating to a person's status in society.
(a) Of rank, position, class, etc., as social class, social equality, social scale, etc.
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1756 T. Rutherforth Inst. Nat. Law II. iv. 90 As there is a natural equality amongst mankind, before they unite in civil society, so there is a social equality amongst them, after they are united.
1794 C. Pigott Female Jockey Club 61 Men, since their formation into social classes, have certainly lost sight of the grand object—the greater good.
1814 M. Birkbeck Notes Journey through France 22 The labouring class here is certainly much higher, on the social scale, than with us.
1840 J. S. Mill in London & Westm. Rev. Mar. 262 The demoralizing effect of great inequalities in wealth and social rank.
a1876 H. Martineau Autobiogr. (1877) I. 297 Norwich..has now no claims to social superiority.
1901 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 7 399 He makes a better home and moves upward in the social scale, perhaps, faster than the immigrant from any other country.
1967 A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in Eng. ii. 86 The medieval peasant..his illiteracy, his social inferiority.
1973 Listener 28 June 863/2 The Industrial Revolution..became in time a social revolution and established that social equality on which we all depend.
2000 M. Barrowcliffe Girlfriend 44 xii. 314 The only friend I had whose dad was not of my social class..had been to a comprehensive where he'd told people his dad was a brickie.
(b) Of a person with respect to his or her rank in society, as social equal, social outcast, social superior, etc.
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1788 Columbian Mag. Aug. 449/1 The next order of social beings which demands our attention, is the numerous and ambosexual order of tatlers.
1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest III. 78 The rulers of other European states were ready to receive him as their social peer.
1888 E. Bellamy Looking Backward xi. 164 Who are willing to be domestic servants..where all are social equals?
1917 N. Douglas South Wind xxxix. 453 Her home broken up; her child a bastard; herself and Meadows—social outcasts.
1934 M. V. Hughes London Child of Seventies xiii. 159 One must never suppose that any other people whatsoever are one's social superiors.
1948 ‘G. Orwell’ in Observer 28 Nov. 4/4 The social misfit..should learn to be contented in his own station.
2007 Hindustan Times (Nexis) 27 Nov. Middle-class folks cite such use of language as proof that their social inferiors are inherently racist.
e. Chiefly Social Sciences. Developing from or involving the relationships between human beings or social groups that characterize life in society, as social behaviour, social integration, social intercourse, social norm, etc.
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society > society and the community > social relations > [adjective]
sociable1573
frequent1609
conversative1617
conversablea1631
conversive1661
homiletical1668
social1788
interpersonal1842
1788 T. Reid Ess. Active Powers Man v. vi. 664 I call those operations social which necessarily imply social intercourse.
1840 J. S. Mill in Edinb. Rev. Oct. 5 By Democracy M. de Tocqueville understands..the absence of all aristocracy, whether constituted by political privileges, or by superiority in individual importance and social power.
1878 W. James Let. 25 Nov. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) II. 35 Their only weakness would lie in the fact of their social environment not recognizing this as the ultimate interest.
1920 W. I. Thomas & F. Znaniecki Polish Peasant Europe & Amer. IV. p. xii Many individuals..consider the social isolation and relatively low cultural level of the peasant communities an undesirable phenomenon.
1936 M. 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’.
1949 M. Mead Male & Female i. 10 None of these powers—to kill individuals, to destroy the social integration of groups..are new.
1973 H. L. Nieburg Culture Storm ix. 188 The conventions of the funny and the laugh-worthy are ritualized as are all forms of social behavior.
1999 M. Shoard Right to Roam iii. 113 An increasingly formal pattern of social intercourse based on the country seats was accompanied by the annual ritual of the London Season.
f. Zoology. Developing from or involved in the relationships between individual animals or within animal groups.
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1874 C. Hodge What is Darwinism? 39 He teaches that man's moral nature has been evolved by slow degrees from the social instincts common to many animals.
1914 Science 25 Sept. 445/2 The pigeons whose social behavior was under investigation were destroyed.
1939 T. L. Green Pract. Animal Biol. i. 152 The widespread distribution of the rabbit and its extreme commonness result in a general knowledge of its habits, its colonial or social life, feeding habits and life history.
1975 E. 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.
1999 Canad. Geographic Jan. 73/2 Apex predators (wolves, grizzlies, sharks, orcas and polar bears) are charismatic animals, with elaborate social interactions.
6.
a. Of a human being: living or disposed to live in groups or communities; naturally inclined to be in the company of others. Also of a person's nature: characterized by a need to live in groups or communities.
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society > [adjective] > living in society
social1611
society > [adjective] > living in society > disposed to
social1611
1611 W. Cowper Anat. Christian Man iii. 273 Neyther in this life nor in the life to come, hath God ordained man to liue alone. By his first creation he was made a social creature.
1644 S. Rutherford Lex, Rex i. 2 God hath made man a sociall creature.
1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature vii. 145 Man is a Social creature: that is, a single man, or family, cannot subsist, or not well, alone out of all Society.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. iii. i. 157 Let this then be remember'd,..that Man by Nature is truly a Social Animal.
1792 J. Sturges Disc. ii. 27 That distinguishing character of man, his social nature, is what most extends the field of his affections.
1832 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 251/2 The aggregation of a society is begun by the mutual attraction of the social qualities of men.
1853 R. C. Trench On Lessons in Proverbs 127 Man not being merely accidentally gregarious, but essentially social.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 279 In the use of the senses, as in his whole nature, man is a social being.
1907 Philos. Rev. 16 223 The well-defined recognition of certain duties incumbent on us as social beings.
1935 T. N. Carver Essent. Factors Social Evol. v. 135 Do men hang together because of social feeling or because they see that if they do not they will, as Franklin suggested, hang separately?
1997 A. Oldenquist in A. Schmitt et al. New Aspects Human Ethol. 214 Humans are innately social, which includes the bases for language, pair bonding, and genetic predisposition to be socialized.
b. Zoology. Of an animal: living or tending to live in communities of individuals of the same species which cooperate with one another to their mutual or collective benefit; of or relating to such animals; esp. designating insects (such as ants and bees) or other animals which live in highly organized associations, often with adaptation of individuals to distinct roles or activities (cf. eusocial adj.).
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1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 929 Authors describe it [sc. Tenthredo] to be in colour like a Wasp..and in communication of labour like all other social winged Insects [L. ἀγελαῖα quae vis aligera insecta].
1739 D. Bellamy tr. N. A. Pluche Nature Delineated I. xii. 247 These beavers are social Creatures, and a whole Body of them will sometimes reside together under one Roof.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VIII. Index sig. Mm1 Wasps..the social wasps gather no honey themselves, though fond of sweets.
1831 Insect Miscellanies 412/1 Social leaf-mining caterpillars.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 87 In social animals it [sc. natural selection] will adapt the structure of each individual for the benefit of the community.
1865 J. G. Wood Homes without Hands xxiii. 444 Another well-known British insect which constructs social habitations is the Gold-tailed Moth (Porthesia chrysorrhœa).
1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects viii. 196 The Buff-tip Moth Caterpillars (Pygæra bucephala) are social during the first stage or two of their life, but after that they give up spinning a carpet.
1988 A. H. Buss Personality i. 8 Less social mammals tend to display only the rudiments of the behavioral features that are fully developed in highly social animals.
2000 Sci. Amer. Mar. 56/2 This collective behavior that emerges from a group of social insects has been dubbed ‘swarm intelligence’.
c. Botany. Of plants: growing in a wild state in clumps, patches or masses with other members of the same species, typically so as to cover a large area.
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the world > plants > by habitat or distribution > [adjective] > social or growing in groups
social1674
gregarious1836
1674 W. Bates Harmony Divine Attributes viii. 152 Resemblance is the common Principle of Union in Nature: Social Plants thrive best when near together: Sensitive Creatures associate with those of their kind.
1811 J. Black tr. A. von Humboldt Polit. Ess. New Spain II. 455 With the exception of a few gigantic arundinaceous which are social plants, the gramina appear in general infinitely rarer in the torrid zone than in the temperate zone.
1855 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 268 One of the plants which the botanist terms social because never found growing singly, but always in numbers.
1890 W. Flagg Year Among Trees 169 One of the most common of these social plants is the sweet-fern, universally prized for its fragrance.
1905 New Phytologist 4 100 Calluna-Association: Social Species: Dominant, Calluna Erica 40—50 p.c... Sub-dominant, Festuca ovina.
1966 Castanea 31 159 The only pure stand occupying this habitat type was Stereodon imponens, usually a highly social plant.
2003 Amer. Fern Jrnl. 93 134 Allopolyploidy..is common in ‘social’ species, typically aquatics of temperate or tropical temperate regions.
d. In the names of various birds and mammals thought of as being gregarious. Cf. sociable adj. 1b.
ΚΠ
1781 T. Pennant Hist. Quadrupeds II. 459 The Social Rat..inhabits the Caspian desert.
1801 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. II. i. 93 The Social Mouse is a native of the Caspian deserts.
1850 R. Gordon-Cumming Five Years Hunter's Life S. Afr. I. xi. 233 Many of them [sc. trees] were inhabited by whole colonies of the social grosbeak.
1869 Galaxy Aug. 173 The social-sparrow, alias ‘hair-bird’,..is the smallest of the sparrows.
1920 P. J. Fryer Insect Pests & Fungus Dis. Fruit & Hops viii. 39 The maggots of Flies and Sawflies show a fair amount of variation. They may be almost colourless or distinctly marked, as in the Social Pear Sawfly, without feet or with six middle pairs of sucker feet (e.g. Apple Sawfly).
1979 Auk 96 214 One minor slip appears in the Social Plover.., which is said to be identifiable by the presence of an undepicted hind toe.
1999 Nature Conservancy Sept. 42/2 By winter, the social bat, as it's more aptly known, roosts shoulder-to-shoulder on the ceilings of cool caves in tightly packed clusters.
e. Zoology. Of an ascidian: compound or colonial; spec. composed of zooids which are connected to each other but retain individual incurrent and excurrent siphons.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > division Molluscoidea > [adjective] > of or belonging to Tunicata > of or relating to Ascidia > compound
social1849
1849 E. Blyth et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom (new ed.) 670 The latter are simply adherent to each other by little suckers, not being organically united like the compound and social Ascidians.
1860 Chambers's Encycl. I. 466/2 In some kinds (Social Ascidians), the peduncles of a number of individuals are connected by a tubular stem.
1877 T. H. Huxley Man. Anat. Invertebrated Animals x. 610 In the compound or social Tunicata, many ascidiozooids..are united by a common test.
2004 Evolution 58 1210/2 Colonial (i.e., compound and social) ascidians produce adult zooids by asexual reproduction.
a. Associated, related, combined. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > [adjective] > related or connected
fastOE
of kin1486
akin1548
alliant1551
consortinga1592
kin1600
conjugate1605
consanguineousa1616
social1620
related1623
relatea1627
connex1653
cognate1655
agnate1686
contiguous1770
connected1789
allied1794
adjoining1869
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being combined > [adjective] > combined
conjoint1393
redacta1398
combinate1583
combined1603
social1620
solida1626
consolidate1638
conjunct1649
alligateda1676
combinated1757
amalgamated1827
amalgamate1849
consolidateda1850
1620 T. Granger Syntagma Logicum 20 The former is called the Sole, solitary,..absolute Cause: the latter sociall Causes.
1645 H. Hammond View Infallibility 64 'Tis strange you should couple them together as so sociall things which are so distant and separable.
1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. ii. 80 There may be subjoyned another social cause that may contribute not a little to the elevating water above its owne Level.
1700 E. Young Wisdom of Believing ii. 60 Let any one say whether it be harder to believe, That the Divine Essence did from everlasting emanate or flow into Three Social and Co-eternal Subsistences, than to believe, That in the Beginning of Time All things were made out of Nothing.
b. poetic. Of a group of people: united by a common bond; associated. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > [adjective] > united by some common tie
social1717
1717 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad III. xi. 339 The social Shades the same dark Journey go.
1718 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad IV. xvi. 985 Patroclus yields to fear, Retires for Succour to his social Train.
1783 J. Hoole tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso III. xxv. 214 Agramant, with all his social train, Had hop'd assistance from their arms in vain.
8.
a. Of a theory, philosophy, etc.: concerned with the constitution of human society; spec. concerned with the issues and problems that affect human society and their resolution.Recorded earliest in social science n.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [adjective]
sociala1770
sociological1843
sociologic1851
social scientific1856
macrosociological1951
a1770 M. Akenside Poems (1772) 309 England spurns her Gothic chain, And equal laws and social science reign.
1773 F. Gentleman Introd. Shakespeare's Plays 13 He should be able to break thro', with ease, the cobwebs of sophistry, and above all, enjoy that grand ingredient recommended by Cicero, social philosophy.
a1832 A. Polson Eng. Law in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) 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.
1837 J. S. Mill in London & Westm. Rev. 28 100 These men raised the cry of social reform.
1887 B. Webb My Apprenticeship (1926) 418 Seeking justification in social research.
1920 W. R. Sorley Hist. Eng. Philos. xii. 265 Maurice's..work, both in social reform and in religion, derived stimulus and direction from philosophical ideas.
1957 P. Coveney Poor Monkey iv. 54 The social novel of Disraeli, E. C. Gaskell, and Kingsley..represents something essential to the literary consciousness of the age.
1979 A. Easson Elizabeth Gaskell ii. 61 Mary Barton and North and South are often spoken of in the context of social fiction.
2006 Daily Tel. 30 Aug. 19/3 A return to on-site hospital training would attune it more to nursing and less to social theory.
b. Of an activity or policy: carried out to improve the condition of society or for the benefit of society as a whole.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [adjective] > relating to social service
social1783
social service1894
1783 J. Hanway Let. to Governors Maritime-school 32 After all our social efforts and generous toils, let not our school drop into oblivion!
1830 J. S. Mill Let. 27 Aug. in J. S. Mill & French Thought (1956) i. 20 All the great questions of legislation, education, & social improvement in general will be brought on the tapis successively.
1885 W. Harris Hist. Radical Party xvii. 415 The old characteristic of Whig rule was thus revived, the Ministry being in form willing to adopt administrative and social improvements.
1941 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 46 482 The wage-raising and social spending policies of the ‘moderate’ socialists.
1973 Listener 1 Mar. 287/2 Love of the poor needs social legislation to stiffen it up.
2004 H. Kennedy Just Law (2005) iii. 94 Good nursery education for our most disadvantaged children is the best social investment of all in preventing crime, mental illness and anti-social behaviour.
c. Of a person or organization: concerned with or interested in the issues and problems that affect human society and their resolution.
ΚΠ
1829 J. P. Thomas Treat. Universal Jurispr. (ed. 2) ii. iv. 197 Often does it require the utmost skill of the social philosopher, to detect the artful chicane of the false witness.
1833 J. S. Mill in Monthly Repository 7 269 An error which many..of our social reformers, habitually fall into.
1859 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 36 I am glad to observe, for the edification of social economists.
1898 Daily News 12 Oct. 4/4 The Church had always been social and humanitarian.
1919 V. Branford & P. Geddes Coming Polity (ed. 2) iii. i. 223 Compound these three insurgent types of social critic..and you have the disorders of Revolution.
1965 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 357 49/1 An almost inexhaustible number of separate yet related problems, the cumulative impact of which is numbing..to the social activist and public official.
1970 Guardian 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.
2002 R. J. Richards Romantic Conception Life ii. 53 Schlegel..wished himself to shine as a social writer.
9. Psychology. Of a mental process: dependent upon interaction with other people.Used only by and in discussions of Thomas Reid.
ΚΠ
1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers 72 Some operations of our minds, from their very nature, are social, others are solitary.
1788 T. Reid Ess. Active Powers Man v. vi. 664 I call those operations social which necessarily imply social intercourse.
1989 C. A. J. Coady in M. Dalgarno & E. Matthews Philos. Thomas Reid 227 Certainly requests, commands and entreaties are social operations and do not express propositions but such social operations as accusations, warnings and reports certainly do.
B. n.† 1. A companion, an associate. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > association, fellowship, or companionship > a companion or associate > [noun]
yferec870
brothereOE
ymonec950
headlingOE
ferec975
fellowOE
friendOE
eveningOE
evenlinglOE
even-nexta1225
compeerc1275
monec1300
companiona1325
partnerc1330
peerc1330
neighbour?c1335
falec1380
matec1380
makec1385
companya1425
sociatec1430
marrow1440
partyc1443
customera1450
conferec1450
pareil?c1450
comparcionerc1475
resortc1475
socius1480
copartner?1504
billy?a1513
accomplice1550
panion1553
consorterc1556
compartner1564
co-mate1576
copemate1577
competitor1579
consociate1579
coach-companion1589
comrade1591
consort1592
callant1597
comrado1598
associate1601
coach-fellow1602
rival1604
social1604
concomitanta1639
concerner1639
consociator1646
compane1647
societary1652
bor1677
socius1678
interessora1687
companioness1691
rendezvouser1742
connection1780
frater1786
matey1794
pardner1795
left bower1829
running mate1867
stable companion1868
pard1872
buddy1895
maat1900
bro1922
stable-mate1941
bredda1969
Ndugu1973
1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. Sociall, or sociable, fellowe like, one that wil keepe company, or one with whom a man may easily keepe company.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. x. 426 O Socials! we're not ignorant of losses.
a1770 T. Cradock Maryland Eclogues x, in Poet. Writings (1983) 200 Meanwhile, Scotch-Irish shall my socials be.
1925 T. A. Cook Sunlit Hours ii. 42 George Wharton..was the Precentor, and his ‘Socials’ enjoyed the privilege of two sitting-rooms.
2. Originally North American. An informal social gathering or party, esp. one organized by the members of a particular club or group.box social, church social: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > social gathering > [noun]
companyc1300
assemblya1616
redoubt1698
assemblée1712
powwow1812
social1857
bear fight1861
corroboree1885
squash1904
1857 Cayuga (Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin) Chief 4 Mar. 1/1 The winter was gliding away in the midst of whist parties and socials.
1870 Mainland 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.
1893 The Month Aug. 157 The social given by the ladies of the Altar Society was a grand success.
1941 V. Walker in J. F. Dobie et al. Texian Stomping Grounds 33 A pie supper is a community social to which each lass and lady carries a choice bit of meringue, crust, and filling.
1974 H. Secombe Twice Brightly 127 ‘A church social?’ Wally was indignant. ‘Not on your nelly, boy.’
2007 Sacramento (Calif.) Bee (Nexis) 13 July e2 An ice cream social will be held from noon to 4 p.m., and the park's regular attractions will be operating.
3. colloquial. Also with capital initial.
a. Chiefly British. Money paid out by social security; (also) a social security programme.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [noun] > state allowance
benefit1911
welfare benefit1913
welfare cheque1922
social security1943
pogey1954
entitlement programme1956
SS1963
social1966
welfare1970
social benefit1972
relief1995
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [noun] > state allowance > system of
national insurance1878
social assistance1907
social security1908
NI1966
social1966
1966 J. Smith Ornament of Grace 56 We haven't met since I was on Social, just after the twins were born.
1981 Times 20 May 3/8 I'm getting two wages, one from prison, and one from the social.
1983 J. Wainwright Their Evil Ways 26 She applied for extra ‘social’. She was..sure she was entitled to some extra.
2008 Sunday Mail (Nexis) 10 Feb. 17 A cliche like Shettleston Man—unemployed, deprived, poor, lives off the social, drinks and smokes too much..and lucky to live beyond 63.
b. North American. A social security number.
ΚΠ
1992 H. Childress Reality Bites (film script) (O.E.D. Archive) 114 Vickie walks over to an employee whose back is to us... Vickie. Hey, I still need your social.
2000 J. W. Huston Flash Point (2001) 573 ‘What's your Social?’ ‘Five six three, three three, five seven seven eight.’
2008 Kingston (Ont.) Whig-Standard (Nexis) 27 Dec. h21 In recent years, I have been asked to provide my ‘social’ when I contact a bank or other financial institution.
Compounds
C1. In combination with other adjectives.
a. Forming adjectives with the sense ‘social and ——’, as social-cultural, social-economic, social-emotional, social-ethical, social-philosophical, social-political, etc. Cf. social democratic adj., socio- comb. form 3.
ΚΠ
1848 Glasgow Herald 4 Aug. 1/6 A new ‘cercle’ is about to be formed by M. Olivier (Démosthènes) and others of the social-democratic party.
1890 C. Gross Gild Merchant I. 163 At Barnstaple..the Gild Merchant seems to have been transformed into a social-religious gild.
1899 Daily News 21 June 4/3 Parliament is at last tired of social-political experiments.
1919 M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism I. i. v. 71 A serious contribution to social-economic speculation.
1940 K. Mannheim Ideol. & Utopia 35 The discovery of the social-situational roots of thought at first, therefore, took the form of unmasking.
1951 T. Parsons et al. in T. Parsons & E. A. Shils Toward Gen. Theory Action i. i. 18 Fundamentals of behavior psychology..primary viscerogenic and possibly social-relational needs, cognition and learning.
1956 J. Klein Study of Groups viii. 118 Social-emotional behaviour.
1960 C. S. Lewis Stud. 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.
1977 A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory viii. 291 Durkheim..was very critical of some features of Comte's social-philosophical writings.
2005 D. Howard-Pitney Afr. Amer. Jeremiad (rev. ed.) Concl. 225 His forte is moralistically addressing social-cultural issues.
b. Forming (chiefly parasynthetic) adjectives with the sense ‘concerned with social issues’, as social-minded, social-conscious, etc.
ΚΠ
1833 C. Cushing Rev. Late Revol. France II. xi. 262 A social minded King and a youthful Queen promised new scenes to the courtier.
1852 R. Chambers Life & Wks Robert Burns III. 260 A social-spirited, impressionable man like Robert Burns.
1939 A. 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.
1942 C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 183 His social-conscious protestations of hurt had leapt the bounds of amateur sincerity.
2000 J. Klaiber in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 378/1 At the same time that the Catholic church experienced a new awakening following Vatican II, some Latin American Protestants also turned more ecumenical and social-minded.
C2. † social whale n. Obsolete = pilot whale n. at pilot n. and adj. Compounds 2.
social action n. (a) deliberate action that results or is intended to result in a change in the institutions or conditions of social life; an instance of this; (b) (Sociology) action that takes place in a social context; action involving or oriented towards one or more other individuals; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > change > action resulting in
social actiona1746
mobilization1876
mobilizing1901
social mobilization1919
a1746 F. Hutcheson Syst. Moral Philos. (1755) I. i. ix. 181 There may be abundant enjoyments to some orders of beings without social action.
1853 H. Martineau Positive Philos. of Comte II. viii. 246 Its distinctive social action..was well represented by the noble Fabricius.
1873 H. Spencer Study 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.
1929 T. Parsons in Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 37 33 Weber does not exclude ‘values’ from his consideration, but the whole point of his method is to analyze social action in terms of them.
1985 E. W. Soja in D. Gregory & J. Urry Social Relations & Spatial Structures vi. 90 To be alive is to..be shaped by a constantly evolving spatiality which constitutes and concretises social action and relationship.
2004 D. A. Hardcastle et al. Community Pract. i. 9 Social action to change the law..will be more effective than after-the-fact rape counseling in sparing women the..traumas of rape.
social assistance n. a programme or programmes providing assistance to people in need; (Canadian) = social security n.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [noun] > state allowance > system of
national insurance1878
social assistance1907
social security1908
NI1966
social1966
1907 N.Y. Times 11 May 6/5 The Social Assistance people (strictly unofficial) feed about 16,000 people.
1915 E. M. Borchard Diplomatic Protection Citizens Abroad xxxviii. 81 The laws of the United States, Great Britain and France are among the most liberal in this respect, for aliens are admitted to the various forms of social assistance and poor relief.
1938 Winnipeg Free Press 10 Mar. 1/4 To accept the proposal now, said the minister, would mean a serious dislocation in existing arrangements for social assistance.
2001 J. Waterman Arctic Crossing ii. 174 Inuit collect social assistance checks as a means to continue hunting.
social audit n. (originally) an audit of social aspects of the operations of an institution or organization; (now chiefly) a formal assessment of a company's operations with respect to social issues such as working conditions or environmental impact.
ΚΠ
1906 Manitoba Morning Free Press 1 June 8/4 In his social audit of the city's finances, Mr. J. H. Menzies..reports all books, etc., in first-class condition.
1936 N.Y. Times 11 June 5/1 This ‘social audit’ will have the double purpose of lopping from the lists cases which do not belong there and of standardizing the administration of relief in the bureau's forty-four district offices.
1966 Amer. Jrnl. Econ. & Sociol. 25 257 Once in every three years the trustees would appoint experts to conduct a social audit and report to the annual meeting on how well the company had discharged its responsibilities to workers, consumers, and the community.
2008 Times of India (Nexis) 16 Mar. The plans aim to institute a ‘social audit’ which makes manufacturing processes in industries likely to be found violative of child labour laws subject to external scrutiny.
social benefit n. (a) a benefit to society, frequently resulting from technological advancement; (b) a benefit payable under a social security system.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > [noun] > an advantage, benefit, or favourable circumstance > a benefit > social
social benefit1735
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [noun] > state allowance
benefit1911
welfare benefit1913
welfare cheque1922
social security1943
pogey1954
entitlement programme1956
SS1963
social1966
welfare1970
social benefit1972
relief1995
1735 ‘Philoveritas’ Ess. on Relig. 80 All mankind are then to acknowledge all good Offices done by, and social Benefits received from Mankind.
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch III. vi. lvi. 241 Your neatly-carved argument for a social benefit which they [sc. rustics] do not feel.
1963 J. R. Sargent in M. Shanks Lessons of Public Enterprise xv. 250 A balancing of social benefits against social costs.
1972 Guardian 30 Dec. 4/1 From Monday every citizen of the nine nations..is entitled to the same pay and..social benefits..as fellow Europeans.
2002 M. Kurlansky Salt (2003) xxi. 354 Hundreds of workers are undeclared so that the salt traders can avoid paying them social benefits.
social butterfly n. frequently depreciative a person who goes to many social events; a person most comfortable in social situations; a socialite.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > [noun] > participant
man (also woman, etc.) about town1734
racketer1753
social butterfly1837
socialite1909
socializer1941
1837 Amer. Q. Rev. June 403 He has too much goodness of heart to engage in the breaking of social butterflies upon the wheel of ridicule.
1910 A. E. Housman Let. 4 Mar. (1971) 108 People are asking me out a great deal too often..I am not a social butterfly.
2003 City News (Austral.) (Nexis) 30 Oct. 32 For some, Melbourne Cup day is about the horses and racing. But for social butterflies, it's all about buying a stylish new outfit and being seen at an exclusive luncheon.
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.
ΚΠ
1835 Western 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.
1886 Science 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.
1961 J. M. Jacobs Death & Life of Great Amer. Cities 138 These networks are a city's irreplaceable social capital.
1991 European 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.
2001 J. 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.
ΚΠ
1846 Commerc. Rev. South & West 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.
1902 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 7 502 The first article treats the general assumptions of social care of the poor.
1938 H. 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.
1966 G. W. Brown et al. (title) Schizophrenia and social care.
1998 Community 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 casework n. = casework n.2
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social service or work > types of
casework1892
child welfare1907
social casework1916
youth work1944
support service1964
1916 Amer. Econ. Rev. 6 431 (title) Some uses of social case work in medical training.
2001 L. M. Healy Internat. Social Work iv. 95 Social casework is the common method in [Japanese] welfare offices, hospitals and healthcare centers.
social caseworker n. = caseworker n.2
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social service or work > social worker > types of
street worker1855
settler1884
welfare worker1886
welfare manager1904
caseworker1907
social caseworker1917
welfare1960
youth worker1976
1917 M. E. Richmond Social Diagnosis 5 The ground which all social case workers could occupy in common.
2007 R. Ericson Crime in Insecure World iii. 119 Welfare benefits fraud is a conundrum because of the limitations of social caseworker knowledge as to whether a person receiving welfare benefits has other viable means of support.
social causation n. the theory that phenomena, such as illness or criminal behaviour, may be explained in terms of social causes; the fact of causing phenomena in this way.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > [noun] > social cause or effect in behaviour
social causation1848
latent function1949
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > theories or methods of analysis
reflexivity1662
social statics1843
social causation1848
sociography1881
functionalism1904
class analysis1919
culturalism1919
mass observation1920
survey1927
participant observation1933
participant observing1933
Verstehen1934
panel technique1938
MO1939
ahistoricism1940
historicism1940
technologism1940
action research1945
metasociology1950
pattern variable1951
structural functionalism1951
structuralism1951
panel analysis1955
cliometrics1960
unilinearism1964
technology assessment1966
symbolic interactionism1969
modernization theory1972
processualism1972
postcolonialism1974
decontextualization1976
decontextualizing1980
structurism1989
1848 Christian Reformer 4 137 He very imperfectly comprehends..states of society and mental influences which..have to be gathered and learnt from general principles of social causation.
1896 F. H. Giddings Princ. Sociol. i. 20 Thus the cycle of social causation begins and ends in the physical process.
1964 J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 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.
2006 M. C. Lennon in C. L. M. Keyes & S. H. Goodman Women & Depression iv. xiii. 317 An alternative interpretation of the association between employment and depression is given by the social causation explanation.
social centre n. a place in which people gather for communal and recreational activities; (now chiefly) a building designed for this purpose.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > [noun] > place set apart for
social centre1869
marae1877
community centre1899
society > leisure > social event > [noun] > place or building for social activities
social centre1869
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > public building > [noun] > centre for recreational or educational activities
social centre1869
community centre1899
settlement house1907
leisure centre1935
1869 Belfast News-let. 23 Feb. The club itself is a sort of social centre for the comfort and recreation of well-to-do West End shopkeepers.
1901 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 7 206 Is there not room for the school..in providing accessible and agreeable social centers?
1978 J. Anderson Angel of Death v. 42 The main saloon..was the social centre of the yacht.
2003 C. Birch Turn again Home iv. 61 As vice-chairman of the Sutton Estate Social Centre, Uncle Edmund organised children's outings.
social change n. a change in the customs, institutions, or culture of a society, esp. due to ideological or technological factors; also as a mass noun.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > change
social revolution1795
upheaving1821
social change1822
world revolution1832
upheaval1850
1822 Country Constit. Guardian & Lit. Mag. 1 198/2 It [sc. this excessive licentiousness of the press] will put to imminent hazard the results of this great social change.
1952 H. H. Gerth & D. A. Martindale in tr. M. Weber Anc. Judaism p. xviii A second sociological issue of concern to Weber is the examination of social changes due to territorial organization and urbanization.
2007 Heidelberger (Austral.) (Nexis) 21 Feb. 2 A free public seminar, exploring cultural activism and the role of the arts in social change.
social chapter n. (also with capital initials) the section of the Maastricht Treaty dealing with policy on social matters such as workers' rights and welfare (cf. Maastricht n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > [noun] > social compact > between specific groups > specific > part of
social chapter1991
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > specific societies or organizations > [noun] > other specific associations or organizations > document produced by > part of
social chapter1991
1991 Independent 5 Dec. 12/6 The treaty's social chapter is probably the single most difficult area.
1998 A. Forna Mother of All Myths (1999) viii. 244 Labour's commitment to the parental leave directive in the EC Social Chapter..is certainly to be welcomed.
2005 Sunday Times (Nexis) 11 Dec. 17 Howard stipulated that Major should not sign up to..the range of new workplace rights called the social chapter.
social character n. the collective essential traits of a society or group of people, arising from common experience, education, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > a civilization or culture > [noun] > characteristic spirit or ethos
social character1754
ethos1842
eidos1936
1754 S. Johnson Elem. Philos. (ed. 3) i. 208 My third Relation is to my Fellow Creatures, and especially those of my own Species,..which obliges me..to behave suitably to the social Character.
1895 Science 17 May 541/2 Scientific method..has added organizability to the social character, and by virtue of this it has dynamically contributed to the advance in social progress.
2002 Jrnl. Black Stud. 32 506 Inevitable, therefore, is the tragic undermining of individuals' humanity and warping of the social character.
social charter n. (also with capital initials) a document establishing or dealing with policy on social matters such as workers' rights and welfare; spec. a charter signed by eleven European Union member states in 1989, which later formed the basis of the Maastricht Treaty's social chapter (cf. social chapter n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > [noun] > social compact > between specific groups > specific > forming basis of
social charter1940
society > occupation and work > working > labour relations > [noun] > document concerning workers' rights, etc.
social charter1940
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social service provided by (local) government > document dealing with social policy
social charter1940
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > specific societies or organizations > [noun] > other specific associations or organizations > document produced by
social charter1940
1940 Times 11 July 3/1 A social charter will be created to assure employers and workers the means of earning a livelihood with dignity.
1989 Independent 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.
1992 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 1 Feb. a1/1 Two of Canada's business leaders became unexpected supporters yesterday of a ‘social charter’ in a rewritten Constitution.
2005 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 3 May 21 The architect of the EU ‘social charter’ in 1989..was the French socialist, Jacques Delors.
social chauvinism n. [after Russian social-šovinizm (1915 (in Lenin) or earlier)] derogatory (chiefly in the phraseology of communism and socialism) the action or practice of supporting one's own non-socialist government during wartime, rather than pursuing the overthrow of capitalism through a proletarian revolution.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > socialism > [noun] > attitudes or policies
opportunism1902
social chauvinism1919
ouvrierism1950
self-management1953
workerism1953
1919 Times 22 Dec. 16/2 This is an axiom which is only disputed by the conscious upholders of Social-Chauvinism.
1930 M. J. Olgin tr. V. Lenin Coll. Wks. XVIII. 226 Social-chauvinism, being in practice a defence of the privileges..of ‘one's own’ (or any other) imperialist bourgeoisie, is a total betrayal of all Socialist convictions.
2003 L. Selezneva in R. Fawn Realignments in Russ. Foreign Policy 11 The doctrine in foreign policy itself has changed radically. It can be described as a mixture of neo-imperialism, liberalism and social-chauvinism.
social chauvinist n. and adj. [as noun after Russian social-šovinist (1915 (in Lenin) or earlier); as adjective after Russian social-šovinistskij (1917 (in Lenin) or earlier)] derogatory (a) n. a socialist who supports his or her own non-socialist government during wartime; (b) adj. of, relating to, or characterized by social chauvinism.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > socialism > [adjective] > attitudes or policies
opportunist1879
social chauvinist1918
ouvrierist1974
society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > socialism > [noun] > attitudes or policies > one who
revisionist1850
opportunist1902
social chauvinist1918
1918 J. W. Hartmann & A. Tridon tr. V. Lenin Proletarian Revol. Russia ii. 120 What it wants to know is the historical origin, the significance and the strength of the social-chauvinist movement.
1919 tr. V. Lenin State & Revol. iv. i. 28 ‘The proletariat needs the State,’ a phrase repeated by all the Opportunists, Social-Chauvinists and Kautskians, who assure us that this is what Marx taught.
1934 tr. N. N. Popov Outl. Hist. Communist Party of Soviet Union I. 335 The majority of the writers..followed in the footsteps of Plekhanov and adopted a social-chauvinist position.
1957 R. 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.
2005 N. Redfern Class or Nation iii. 108 The invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany in June 1941 precipitated the CP into openly social-chauvinist support of the British war effort.
social cleansing n. the removal by a dominant social group of other (esp. disadvantaged) social groups which it regards as undesirable (cf. ethnic cleansing n.). Cf. cleansing n.
ΚΠ
1976 D. 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.
1986 Los 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.
1994 Independent 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.
2001 Evening 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 column n. = society column n. at society n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journal > parts and layout of journals > [noun] > specific columns
theatricals1763
gossip column1859
personal column1859
money column1871
social column1871
1871 Trewman's Exeter Flying Post 18 Oct. 5/2 Shirley Brooke used to write a light, sparkling, literary and social column for a West Country journal.
1952 M. Allingham Tiger in Smoke i. 9 Every social column in the country had announced that she was about to marry him.
2007 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 29 Nov. 24 The Geelong car dealer's daughter..married an English peer then used the title as a byline on a social column for the Melbourne scandal rags.
social columnist n. = society columnist n. at society n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journalist > [noun] > columnist > social columnist
social columnist1935
1935 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 23 Feb. 6/7 It just goes to show that grocers will presently be forced to adopt the ‘S for Sam’ and ‘F for Frank’ lingo of the social columnist.
2006 Africa News (Nexis) 2 Dec. To be the social columnist of Style was to be all-powerful and fawned upon by many.
social commentary n. commentary on society or social issues; an instance of this.
ΚΠ
1847 J. Richardson Eight Years in Canada 39 This is a book in which..the important and the trivial, the stern political stricture and the lively social commentary, are intended to be placed in juxtaposition.
1935 Amer. Econ. Rev. 25 804 He has rather compiled a social commentary.
2007 Toronto Star (Nexis) 21 Aug. l8 It's tough to judge love songs and social commentary from a convicted rapist.
social commentator n. a person who writes or delivers social commentary.
ΚΠ
1859 Southern Literary Messenger Mar. 175/1 They present what is after all the true desideratum of the social commentator or historian—the actual life and personages of the times with which they deal.
1923 Bull. Metrop. Mus. Art 18 44 He..played the rôle of a social commentator, devoting his attention to wit, the depiction of costumes, and the manners of the students, the midinettes, and the vagabonds.
2001 Big Issue 2 July 44/4 The book marks a return to the function of the writer as social commentator.
social compact n. Philosophy = social contract n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > [noun] > social compact
social compact1660
social contract1750
1660 R. L'Estrange Apol. with Short View 104 Every man is every Bodies Enemy: but when we come to finde, that safety, better secured by social Compact..under the Regiment of some certain Lawes directing to the Common benefit of all.
1799 R. Southey Nondescripts i, in Poet. Wks. (1838) III. 59 If we act the governor, and break The social compact.
1881 Spectator 30 Apr. 573 Locke's doctrine of a tacit social compact.
2007 Financial Times (Nexis) 2 Apr. 12 Where the people are given an effective voice in the political process, the social compact will remain.
social conscience n. a sense of responsibility or concern for the problems and injustices that affect society.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social conscience
social conscience1795
social consciousness1848
1795 P. S. Dupuy tr. J.-C. Gorgy Sentimental Tablets 99 The cause of those [writings], whose authors wrote from principle; upon the strongest conviction; directed thereto by a kind of social conscience [Fr. conscience sociale].
1883 B. 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.
1925 A. 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.
2004 fRoots Dec. 35/1 Like his Bob-ness, Seydina is known for writing songs with a social conscience.
social consciousness n. awareness of and concern for the problems and injustices that affect society; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social conscience
social conscience1795
social consciousness1848
1848 N. Brit. Rev. Aug. 274/2 What might be called social consciousness is that which distinguishes the civilized communities of modern times.
1897 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 3 343 As we say in sociological language, there was a very low degree of social consciousness.
1955 T. Williams in S. J. Kunitz 20th Cent. Authors Suppl. I. 1088/1 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.
2000 N.Y. Times 31 Dec. ii. 1/2 In the 1990's, Rage Against the Machine..gave hope to anyone convinced of pop music's ability to raise social consciousness.
social control n. control of a person or group by wider society in order to enforce social norms, through socialization, policing, laws, or similar measures.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > [noun] > social group > control exerted by social group
social control1831
1831 Olio 5 Feb. vi. 72/2 They naturally imbibe ideas of independence, which spurn at all social control.
1898 F. H. Giddings Elements 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.
1951 N. 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?
2004 H. Kennedy Just Law (2005) xii. 249 We are seeing the replacement of due process in the courts by public shaming as a mean of social control of abhorrent behaviour.
social cost n. (a) the cost to society of a policy or innovation, considered in terms of illness, pollution, effort, etc.; (b) the cost to society of a social problem, considered in terms of violence, crime, lack of security, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > [noun] > a disadvantage > resulting to society
social cost1862
1862 J. E. Cairnes Slave Power Contents p. xiv (title) Social cost of the system.
1927 G. D. H. Cole Econ. Syst. 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.
1931 Univ. Pennsylvania Law Rev. & Amer. Law Reg. 80 825 Little attention is paid to the social costs of crime.
1977 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 31 Mar. 21/2 Rehabilitation [of housing]..has proved to be cheaper in social costs.
2002 Contemp. Econ. Policy Jan. 38 Personalized guns..could make existing firearms regulations more effective and reduce the social costs associated with gun misuse.
social cycle n. British (now historical) a four-wheeled pedal cycle seating two or three people side by side.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicle propelled by feet > [noun] > cycle > tricycle > types of
rantoone1864
rear-steerer1882
sociable1882
box-tricycle1894
bakfiets1956
social cycle1961
1961 B.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.
2002 Best of Brit. Nov. 36/1 One of the delights of a holiday camp stay fifty years ago was an outing on a social cycle. These machines were made for two or three with the riders on the outside doing the pedalling.
social Darwinism n. originally Sociology (also with capital initial in the first element) the theory that societies, classes, and races are subject to and a product of Darwinian laws of natural selection.Often used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > theories or methods of analysis > specific
socialism1801
Darwinism1875
social Darwinism1877
Webbism1893
Tolstoyism1894
Paretanism1949
structuralism1951
Parsonianism1963
critical race theory1989
1877 Trans. Royal Hist. Soc. 5 250 I can find nothing in the Brehon laws to warrant this theory of social Darwinism.
1936 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 1 457 Interest Hozumi defined according to social Darwinism: that which aids the struggle for survival.
1972 P. 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.
2007 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 21 Aug. 18 We now imagine that if anything is worth having then it is worth competing for in a very public way... Social Darwinism is currently top of the pops when it comes to guaranteed television success stories.
social Darwinist n. and adj. originally Sociology (also with capital initial in the first element) (a) n. a person who advocates social Darwinism; (b) adj. of or characterized by social Darwinism; relating to or advocating social Darwinism.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > theories or methods of analysis > one who follows or uses
Tolstoyist1894
functionalist1900
Tolstoyan1901
social Darwinist1903
participant observer1924
Paretian1932
mass observer1937
symbolic interactionist1937
structuralist1947
action researcher1950
structural functionalist1953
cliometrician1966
Paretan1969
critical theorist1970
Lévi-Straussian1980
society > society and the community > study of society > [adjective] > theories or methods of analysis
functional1884
Webbite1890
neo-critical1894
structural-functional1898
Tolstoyan1898
functionalist1907
Webbian1913
Paretian1916
situational1916
Paretan1932
verstehende1933
reflexive1934
same-level1934
sociographic1934
idealistic1937
ideational1937
Parsonian1945
social Darwinist1945
culturalist1948
structural1948
contextualized1951
metasociological1953
structural functionalist1953
meta-sociologistic1964
Lévi-Straussian1967
postcolonial1970
decontextualized1971
cliometric1974
postcolonialist1981
intersectional1989
1903 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 17 448 The master error of the social Darwinists is to see in the economic struggle a twin to the ‘struggle for existence’ that plays so fateful a part in the modification of species.
1945 Amer. Anthropologist 47 449 The Marxist tradition itself..is nevertheless equally profoundly a social Darwinist development.
1981 J. Sutherland Bestsellers iv. 57 There is no room for..cosiness in Hailey's social-Darwinist universe.
1992 R. Wright Stolen Continents (1993) xii. 265 He was a social Darwinist ‘liberal’ committed to the most ruthless forms of modernization.
2003 R. Dawkins Devil's Chaplain i. 9 An opposite response to the callousness of natural selection is to exult in it, along with the Social Darwinists and—astonishingly—H. G. Wells.
social deprivation n. hardship caused by a lack of the ordinary material benefits of life in society; (also) denial of interaction with other people.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > [noun]
incommunicableness1643
non-communion1648
non-intercourse1794
unsocialism1849
unsociality1852
non-fraternizationc1870
non-frat1945
social deprivation1958
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > [noun] > deprivation of social interaction
social deprivation1958
1827 B. Tempest Vallies I. 40 A comparison between positive wretchedness and mere social deprivation.
1958 Jrnl. Abnormal & Social Psychol. 56 49 (title) The effect of brief social deprivation on behaviors for a social reinforcer.
1979 W. J. Fishman Streets of E. London 52/2 The social deprivation inherent in East End life.
2007 Observer (Nexis) 23 Dec. 25 I am now in the parish of Knightsbridge.., a place where social deprivation means not being invited to the German ambassador's Christmas party.
social dialect n. (originally) a language or language variety used in social situations; (now chiefly Linguistics) a language variety used by a particular social group or class (cf. sociolect n.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > a language > dialect > [noun] > social or class dialect
patois1643
social dialect1852
group language1920
group dialect1928
non-U1954
sociolect1963
acrolect1965
basilect1965
mesolect1971
folk-speech-
1852 N.-Y. Daily Times 28 Dec. 2/5 Their social dialect..was the Italian,..but now..French..has taken its place.
1911 Amer. Anthropologist 13 634/1 The Todas..have three special religious languages, an argot, and a social dialect.
1949 H. Kurath Word Geogr. Eastern U.S. 7 This leveling of social differences inevitably entailed a leveling of social dialects.
1975 F. West Way of Lang. 50 Social dialects may reflect different levels of education, wealth, social position.
2001 E. Finegan & D. Biber in P. Eckert & J. R. Rickford Style & Sociolinguistic Variation xiv. 241 We believe that certain features of social dialect arise from this differential access to the full range of registers among social groups.
social dialectologist n. Linguistics an expert in or student of social dialectology.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > linguistic geography or dialectology > one who studies
dialectician1848
dialectologist1871
dialectologer1881
social dialectologist1965
variationist1975
1965 College Eng. 26 260/1 The social dialectologist is needed, but so are practical rhetoricians.
1977 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1974 lxi./ lxii. 4 Social dialectologists in recent years have made numerous attempts to describe the speech of black Americans.
1997 Eng. World-Wide 18 107 Women's role in relation to sound change has been discussed by social dialectologists for decades.
social dialectology n. Linguistics the study of social dialects; the study of linguistic variation between social groups or classes.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > linguistic geography or dialectology > specific
Wörter und Sachen1914
social dialectology1960
1960 Current Anthropol. 1 392/3 I want to start developing a course (and publications by the way) in social dialectology.
1976 General Linguistics 16 32 Rustic is an example of social dialectology at its thoroughly honest best.
2008 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 29 Jan. 16 Professor Paul Kerswill, from Lancaster University's department of linguistics and English language, an expert in social dialectology, has researched change in speech in different communities.
social differentiation n. Sociology (a) the process by which the different roles and functions of the members of a society become institutionalized; the result of this process; (b) the process by which groups or communities disperse to form separate or distinct societies.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > process > types of
cantonizing1611
diffusion1871
social differentiation1872
acculturation1880
feminization1901
mobilization1911
acculturalization1929
mimesis1934
schismogenesis1935
stimulus diffusion1940
transculturation1941
nativism1943
massification1946
villagization1954
1872 H. Spencer in Contemp. Rev. 20 317 The primary social differentiation which we have noted between the [society's] regulative part and the operative part, is presently followed by a distinction..between the internal arrangements of the two parts.
1903 L. 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.
1926 C. 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.
1971 F. R. Allen Socio-cultural Dynamics iii. 72 Social differentiation as a major view of change.
2000 B. F. Reskin in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 262 Social differentiation is achieved through norms that set dominate and subordinate groups apart in their appearance (sumptuary rules) or behavior.
social disease n. (a) any problem or issue that adversely affects society; (b) (U.S.) a sexually transmitted disease.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > social evil
social disease1825
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > venereal disease > [noun]
bone acheOE
burning1382
crinkums1618
bone ague1659
crankum1661
venereal1843
jack1899
Jack-in-the-box1899
V.D.1920
a certain disease1927
social disease1978
1825 Examiner 19 June 1/1 We deem it..useful, as illustrative of what may be termed a social disease to complete the record by the addition of companies formed since our first enumeration.
1871 Jrnl. Social Sci. 4 3 There are now social diseases among us—chronic diseases, which..if they existed, were only occasional.
1907 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 13 20 (title) Prophylaxis of social diseases.
1970 Guardian 28 Apr. 10/1 Hard drugs addiction..is a contagious social disease.
1978 R. Ludlum Holcroft Covenant xxvii. 314 She was probably an Odessa agent and you've come down with a social disease, as planned.
2007 Pasadena (Calif.) Star-News (Nexis) 3 Oct. A new city group hopes to curb violence by viewing the problem as a social disease that can be cured.
social disorganization n. chiefly Sociology the disintegration of social institutions, regarded as leading to increased social problems, such as poverty and criminality.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > [noun] > decrease of the influence of social rules
social disorganization1797
1797 in J. Gifford Let. T. Erskine 12 The incalculable expences of the war would supply them [sc. the Jacobins] with innumerable means for effecting that social disorganization, in the midst of which they hoped to establish their empire.
1854 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 17 6 Emigration is also the natural consequence of social disorganization, political convulsions, and religious excitement.
1958 J. M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour xi. 136 The evidence showing how the level of mental disorder increases with social disorganization.
1999 J. Arnott Long Firm v. 287 I mentioned the Chicago School and their studies of urban environments and social disorganisation.
social document n. a work or record, esp. a literary composition, embodying an authentic and informative description of the social conditions of its time.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > a written composition > [noun] > socially informative
family piece1709
social document1883
1883 N.Y. Times 7 Aug. 4/4 The future historian..will have a social document of great value in the accounts of the number and enthusiasm of the spectators.
1921 S. Lewis Let. 12 July in C. Mackenzie My Life & Times (1966) V. 199 Your book..was..at once a Social Document, and an opiate.
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren p. v This pioneer work and social document of first importance is..something of a curiosity.
1991 D. Tomas in M. Benedikt Cyberspace (1993) 32 His novels and short stories are noteworthy social documents because they ‘show..the hidden bulk of an iceberg of social change’.
social dumping n. a process whereby a country with poor labour standards and low manufacturing costs is able to export goods at lower prices than its international rivals, to the social and economic disadvantage of competing countries with higher employment standards and costs.
ΚΠ
1929 N.Y. Times 20 Apr. e7/3 (heading) German business on the defensive. Industrialists say they are not planning campaign of ‘social dumping’.
1988 Times (Nexis) 14 Oct. The Commission fears that once internal barriers have tumbled and the EEC is a single market, companies based in Northern Europe could move their operations South to take advantage of cheaper labour and looser regulations. This has spawned a new EEC jargon phrase, ‘social dumping’.
1995 C. Dunn Canad. Polit. Debates vi. 247 One approach is to regulate international trade to prevent ‘social dumping’, that is, the gaining of comparative advantage by other countries through substandard wages and working conditions.
social dynamics n. Social Sciences (with plural agreement) the factors that influence social change; (with singular agreement) the study of this; cf. social statics n.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > change > forces producing
social dynamics1843
sociodynamics1917
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic II. iv. x. 604 The consideration of the successive order is..predominant in the study of social dynamics, of which the aim is to observe and explain the sequences of social conditions.
1893 L. F. Ward Psychic Factors Civilization xxxviii. 313 The other branch of social dynamics, that which embraces the influence of those active or positive forces heretofore described, necessarily connects the study of these forces with the art of applying them.
1938 B. 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.
1994 T. L. Karl in J. A. Hall State III. iv. liii. 373 The internal social dynamics produced by a mineral-based insertion into the international economy.
social entrepreneur n. a person who undertakes or establishes an enterprise with the aim of solving social problems or effecting social change.
ΚΠ
1948 L. P. Crespi in E. G. Boring et al. Found. Psychol. xxv. 612 The social entrepreneurs are angry about the status quo and are trying vehemently to change it.
1964 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 70 204/2 Such a situation is likely to incite a ‘social entrepreneur’ within the ethnic group to try to organize something for the new immigrants in need.
2006 Fast Company May 104 Some of the most effective antihunger and antipoverty programs in developing nations are small-scale projects run by local or regional social entrepreneurs innovating in ways governments can't.
social entrepreneurship n. the application of entrepreneurial principles to solving social problems or effecting social change; the work of a social entrepreneur.
ΚΠ
1959 N. J. Smelser Social Change in Industr. Revol. xi. 294 Thus the movement from agitation to investigation to actual legislation is an example of social entrepreneurship, in which the sponsor of new institutional forms has to ‘meet the test’ of public acceptance or rejection.
1987 Washington Post 1 May a22/5 Let's look at what I call social entrepreneurship... The power of an idea and one determined person can accomplish so much.
2008 Church Times 14 Mar. 29/4 It is unfortunate that current initiatives such as the new localism, social entrepreneurship, and..social cohesion are all ignored.
social evening n. an informal evening gathering or party, frequently with some form of entertainment; an evening on which this is held.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > social gathering > [noun] > evening gathering
conversazione1740
evening party1742
sociable1750
evening1791
soirée1793
Gregory1804
veillée1825
tertulia1828
swarry1837
social evening1844
1844 Metrop. Mag. June 137 The social evenings were enlivened by the charms of Louise's singing, in which she was a proficient.
1943 G. Greene Ministry of Fear iii. ii. 193 Haven't we met—?.. On one of the doctor's social evenings.
2002 Jewish Chron. 2 Aug. 19/3 The B'nai B'rith hall reverberated to the sound of the anklung at a social evening.
social evil n. any problem or issue that adversely affects society; spec. (frequently with the) prostitution (now archaic).
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun]
bordelc1300
prostitution1553
trugging1591
trade1592
putanism1672
street1750
Magdalenism1840
the life1858
profession1888
social evil1901
hustling1924
game1926
sex trade1931
1732 Man & Woman 29 Undue Copulations have evidently been the grand Seminaries of most social evils.
1851 A. B. Richards Poems, Ess. & Opinions I. 156 The state of our streets is a disgrace to any Capital. It is a disgrace to England. But it is not in this matter that the social evil is to be remedied.
1888 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 2 444 Many others have felt the social evil, of a purely manufacturing civilization, of huge mills and factory towns.
1901 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 323 Those slums have become a pandemonium of drunkenness and the social evil.
2000 S. J. Morse in W. C. Heffernan & J. Kleinig From Social Justice to Criminal Justice v. 154 Poverty, racism, abuse, neglect, and other social evils compromise the dignity and life chances of too many citizens.
social evolution n. the development of human societies, esp. when considered progressive in nature; (also) the evolution of social behaviour in animals.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > [noun] > origin and development of
social evolution1853
sociogeny1875
1853 H. Martineau Positive Philos. of Comte II. vi. vi. 156 The elements of our social evolution [Fr. évolution sociale] are connected, and always acting on each other.
1907 J. London Iron Heel viii. 131 You fellows have studied business..but you have not studied social evolution at all.
1923 Sci. Monthly Mar. 328 In termites the amount of degeneration accompanying social evolution is..much greater than in the ants.
1993 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 19 Sept. 13/2 The authors lay out the magazine's enlightened liberalism, with its built-in belief in social evolution, its utopian yearnings and its unabashed wishful thinking.
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.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > exclusion from society > [noun]
discommunion1590
ostracism1602
disfellowship1608
expurgation1615
elimination1623
estrangement1660
social exclusion1831
fugitation1837
leperhood1875
ostracization1875
boycott1880
boycotting1880
boycottism1880
freeze-out1883
freezing out1891
purge1893
1831 Addr. Different Parts Ireland 1828–9 224 The spirit of political monopoly and social exclusion.
1874 H. 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.
1945 Jrnl. Politics May 196 Germany..adamantly maintained barriers of social exclusion long after the ghettos had passed.
1998 Town & 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 fact n. chiefly Sociology a thing originating in the institutions or culture of a society which affects the behaviour or attitudes of an individual member of that society.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > customs, values, or beliefs of a society or group > [noun] > social fact or reality
social reality1824
social fact1843
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. 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.
1887 S. Moore & E. Aveling tr. K. Marx Capital I. i. 44 The mutual exchangeability of all kinds of useful private labour is an established social fact.
1938 S. A. Solovay & J. H. Mueller tr. E. Durkheim 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.
2005 Sociol. Theory 23 295 Languages and cultural traditions are the most fundamental example of a Durkheimian social fact, for they not only preexist the individual..but..are actually constitutive of her.
social fund n. †(a) a collective fund to which a number of people, companies, etc., contribute and which is held in common (figurative in quot. 1795) (obsolete); (b) a fund from which loans or grants are made to people in need; esp. (British, also with capital initials) a government-administered social security fund established in 1986.
ΚΠ
1795 ‘Citizen Randol’ Polit. Catech. Man 12 I deposit a party of those rights in the social fund, in trust for the joint use and benefit of myself, and society.
1812 W. Cranch Rep. Supreme Court U.S. 6 247 Previous to the commencement of their partnership, Lynn had contracted a debt,..which..it was mutually agreed to transfer to the new concern, and the debt..should become a debt chargeable on the social fund.
1846 Daily News 29 Jan. 3/5 A certain number of these [companies] had united their subscriptions to form the total of their social fund.
1848 Times 15 May 8/7 A social fund of 15 milliards of francs..should be formed by the wealthy classes for the relief of the poorer branches of the community.
1985 Daily Tel. 4 June 6/6 The social fund is to be administered by local DHSS offices so that help can be given quickly to those in genuine need.
2004 H. Kennedy Just Law (2005) xi. 235 Since then people have had to take a loan from the Social Fund to pay for these necessities.
social geographer n. an expert in or student of social geography.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches > one who studies or practises
social engineer1842
social historian1854
social geographer1918
sociobiologist1920
psychosociologist1921
socio-economist1927
squalorologist1957
futurologist1967
social constructivist1988
1918 Greater N.Y. 14 Oct. 22/2 The Society center of Manhattan Island, as fixed by the expert social geographers, is now half way between Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Streets on Fifth Avenue.
2007 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 30 June According to Jacques Levy, a social geographer at Lausanne University, the real ‘lower classes’ in France are often now found in the countryside.
social geography n. a branch of human geography dealing with social relationships and structures, and the interrelations between these; the environment of a place or region, as it relates to or is affected by society and social factors.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
1828 Oriental Herald 17 40 They [sc. statistics] relate only to that which springs from the administration; they are, properly speaking, Social Geography.
1849 Chambers's Information for People (new ed.) II. 571/2 He will study [England's]..social geography, including its national character, language, literature, arts and sciences, manufactures and commerce.
1907 G. W. Hoke in Geogr. Jrnl. 29 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.
1955 Geogr. Jrnl. 121 149 The present study..seeks to determine the part played by ethnic factors in the social geography of this multi-racial city.
1999 D. Herbert in M. Pacione Appl. Geogr. xxx. 414 Segregation and discrimination are key words in the lexicon of social geography.
social gospel n. (a) a message of salvation for society; (b) an interpretation of the gospel as having a particularly social application; spec. (originally U.S.) (the name of) a Protestant movement, particularly prominent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that advocated social reform through the Christian gospel.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > salvation, redemption > [noun] > message of
social gospel1844
society > faith > aspects of faith > Bible, Scripture > Testament > New Testament > Gospel > [noun] > as having social application
social gospel1874
1844 Aristocracy of Britain 208 That memorable night [of the French Revolution],..when..was proclaimed the social gospel of the new world.
1874 J. E. P. Doyle Plymouth Church & Pastor 40 Mrs. Tilton..calmly replied: ‘I am prepared for it. If the new social gospel must have its martyrs, and if I must be one of them, I am prepared for it.’
1917 W. Rauschenbusch Theol. for Social Gospel i. 1 We have a social gospel. We need a systematic theology large enough to match it.
1954 in Amer. Catholic Sociol. Rev. (1955) 16 120 [Psychology] appears to be both a scientific discipline and a social gospel.
1958 J. M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour v. 45 A small college at which it seems that a modernistic and social gospel was widely held among the staff.
1996 United Church Observer Jan. 31 (caption) A product of United Church teaching and the social gospel, Lloyd Axworthy is adjusting social programs for long-term survival.
social group n. a number of individuals associated or aggregated together to a greater or lesser degree, either because they share certain features, as class, ethnicity, etc., or (esp. Social Sciences) because they are bound together by patterns of interaction.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > [noun] > social group
social group1831
group1845
sociogroup1947
1831 tr. J. W. von Goethe in Times 15 Nov. 2/5 Incidents of every kind; individual character and social groups,—are all treated with the same clear perception, the same easy unaffected grace.
1856 ‘G. Eliot’ in Westm. Rev. 10 70 The study of at least one social group—namely, the factory operatives.
1924 H. E. Barnes Sociol. & Polit. Theory iv. 53 From the earliest days the ‘process of history’ has consisted chiefly in the struggle between social groups for the advancement of their economic interests.
1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) VI. 255/2 If points represent people and lines their interrelationships, then a graph may be used to depict the structure of a social group.
2001 C. Kelly Russ. Lit. v. 80 Intellectual life expanded to include a much broader range of social groups, in particular ambitious male provincials from the middle ranks of Russian society.
social housing n. chiefly British = public housing n. at public adj. and n. Compounds 1b.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > [noun] > collectively > type of
model dwellings1851
model1887
tenantry1905
row housing1920
social housing1928
open housing1958
tobacco housing1960
twilight housing1971
co-housing1988
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > other types of house
houseOE
showernc1175
house of fencec1425
abbey1665
park1750
trust house1751
subhouse1771
hurley-house1814
bure1843
ideal home1854
tholtan1856
picture house1858
village-house1862
tumble-down1866
tree-house1867
mazet1873
riad1881
slaughterhouse1899
whare puni1911
mas1912
social housing1928
quadruplex1939
share house1945
starter home1948
show house1957
painted lady1978
self-build1978
starter1979
Earthship1985
Queenslander1985
des res1986
common house1989
1928 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 140 291 Outstanding social housing experiments are the Schmidlapp houses in Cincinnati, [etc.].
1963 Times 5 Aug. 12 (caption) The strongest recent trends in European housing policies are towards more government expenditure on social housing.
2006 Build It May 152/2 (advt.) Three pairs of semi detached houses, nine detached houses and a terrace of eight houses for social housing.
social historian n. an expert in or student of social history.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches > one who studies or practises
social engineer1842
social historian1854
social geographer1918
sociobiologist1920
psychosociologist1921
socio-economist1927
squalorologist1957
futurologist1967
social constructivist1988
1854 J. E. Cooke Virginia Comedians I. vii. 45 The question is submitted to the future social historians of the Old Dominion.
1912 A. 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.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 11 July More and more American women expect to be gorgeous and sexual athletes into their 80s, says social historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg.
social-historical adj. of or relating to social history; (also) social and historical. [In quot. 1858 after German kultur-historisch.]
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [adjective] > other branches
social-historical1858
biosociological1894
psychosociological1900
sociobiological1904
sociotechnical1920
proxemic1963
social constructionist1967
social constructivist1982
1858 Musical World 36 135/2 Herr Meidinger..announces: Mozart, an Artist's Life: A Social Historical Romance in six volumes, by Heribert Rau.
1937 Burlington 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.
1977 A. Wilson Strange Ride R. Kipling vii. 342 I prefer..a social-historical description of long generations of Evangelical belief ending in post-Darwinian doubt.
2007 Toronto Star (Nexis) 19 Mar. a7 The book offers a complex social-historical explanation of First Nations' alcohol problems.
social history n. (a) the history of society or of social behaviour; history with an emphasis on social structures; (b) the background and circumstances of a social worker's client.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > historical narrative > [noun] > history as a branch of knowledge
historya1450
ancient history1566
ancient1595
social history1814
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social service or work > client > background to
social history1950
1814 Gentleman's Mag. June 587/2 He meets them in the recency and warmth of events, the most interesting..in the political and social history of Man.
1877 L. H. Morgan Anc. Society ii. i. 50 It represents a striking phase of the ancient social history of our race.
1950 McDougall & 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.
1970 D. C. Gibbons Delinquent Behaviour iii. 48 The social history document prepared by the probation officer..looms large in the disposition of the case.
2006 Smithsonian Sept. 38/1 Many who study tipping points in social history contend that the oft-noted generation gap spontaneously erupted in the mid-1960s.
social inquiry report n. a report made by a probation officer or social worker on a person's character and circumstances, which may be required by a court before sentencing.
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society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > evidence > [noun] > social inquiry report
probation report1892
social inquiry report1965
1965 Times 11 Oct. 6/7 In all except the most trivial cases, we feel that social inquiry reports should be provided for the youth court by the probation service.
1977 Grimsby Evening Tel. 27 May 13/1 The case had been adjourned for social inquiry and psychiatric reports.
2008 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 17 Jan. 7 Sentence was deferred until yesterday for a social inquiry report and a community service assessment.
social insurance n. a state-run scheme of compulsory contribution to enable the provision of assistance in sickness, unemployment, etc.; cf. national insurance n.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [adjective] > other systems
social insurance1890
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > social service provided by (local) government > types of
social insurance1890
welfare service1911
youth service1943
1890 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 4 436 The Danish project so far is evidence only of the growing strength of the movement for public regulation of social insurance.
1922 S. 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.
1996 W. Hutton State we're In (rev. ed.) x. 264 The welfare structure..is designed so that firms can hang on to workers during a recession with part of their wages paid by social insurance, keeping their workforces intact.
social justice n. chiefly Politics and Philosophy justice at the level of a society or state as regards the possession of wealth, commodities, opportunities, and privileges; cf. distributive justice n. at distributive adj. 3b.Much of the debate surrounding social justice has been concerned with the precise nature of fair distribution, and to what extent this may conflict with individual rights of acquisition and ownership.
ΚΠ
1824 W. Thompson Inq. Princ. Distrib. Wealth iv. 314 The first principle of social justice, that ‘the sole object of all institutions and laws ought to be to promote the happiness of the whole of the community, or..that the happiness of the greater number should be always preferred to that of the lesser’.
1861 J. S. Mill in Fraser's Mag. Dec. 672/1 Society should treat all equally well who have deserved equally well of it... This is the highest abstract standard of social and distributive justice.
1915 T. C. Nixon Ess. Social Justice vi. 171 Distribution according to worth, usefulness or service is the only sound principle for society to follow;..this is the principle of social justice.
1982 R. Scruton Dict. Polit. Thought 245/1 Robin Hood acts unjustly (by taking what he has no right to take) in order to bring about social justice (through redistribution).
2002 Daily Tel. 28 Jan. 21/1 He forced the philosophical advocates of egalitarian social justice onto the defensive, by showing how the state cannot be justified as the redistributor of wealth without violating the rights of the individual.
social ladder n. (usually in figurative context) the hierarchical structure of society; the social scale.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun] > system of
class1804
caste1816
caste system1816
social ladder1817
casteism1852
class system1877
classhood1878
pecking order1935
status system1939
peck order1950
1817 S. T. Coleridge Blessed are Ye that Sow 110 Alas! that some of the intermediate rounds in the social ladder have been broken and not replaced, is itself one of the results.
1835 H. Reeve tr. A. de Tocqueville Democracy in Amer. I. p. xix The noble has gone down on the social ladder, and the roturier has gone up.
1932 N. Coward Three White Feathers in B. Day N. Coward: Compl. Lyrics (1998) 151/1 I've scaled the social ladder And I've never had a head for heights.
2004 J. Denby Billie Morgan xiii. 97 Confident, long-time party girls hoping to score a steady fella and a boost up the social ladder.
social liar n. a person who tells social lies.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > disregard for truth, falsehood > [noun] > a liar > well-intentioned
social liar1844
1844 ‘Rhode Islander’ Might & Right xvi. 311 We can never become a truly great Nation, until the time arrives when..an official liar will be just as mean as a domestic, or social liar.
1976 R. Harris Three Candles for Dark iv. 27 I'm not a liar, or not a real one. A social liar, maybe, like everyone else.
social library n. North American (now historical) a member-owned library maintained by subscription or by the purchase of shares.
ΚΠ
c1765–80 in New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1868) 22 446 We the Subscribers being desirous of purchasing a Social Library..do severally promise and engage to pay Four Dollars a piece for this purpose.
1835 Southern Literary Messenger 1 272 Lectures and social Libraries..are among the chief glories of New England.
1910 A. E. Bostwick Amer. Public Libr. 7 The joint-stock form of library is in its simplest form a book club, as in the so called ‘social libraries’ of Massachusetts.
1999 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 70 395 The social library that arose in De Funiak Springs, Florida, shortly after the establishment of the independent Chautauqua there in 1884.
social lie n. an untrue statement intended to ease social relations; a white lie.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > disregard for truth, falsehood > [noun] > a falsehood, lie > well-intentioned
white lie1567
officious lie1577
officious falsity1676
social lie1839
1839 A. Bywater Sheffield Dial. (new ed.) 271 They teld em at if they let it they shud braik ther contract. Nah that were just a social lie; becos't landlord teld t' young men he'd nooa daht at they'd let it em, an even went we em to see.
1941 W. H. Auden New Year Let. iii. 64 And yet although the social lie Looks double to the dreamer's eye.
2003 New Republic (Nexis) 3 Nov. Nothing can make of Kafka a bad writer, but there were things that lay outside his ken. The communal, the shared, the necessary social lie.
social life n. a person's social interactions and activity considered as a whole; (also) the social activity of a place considered as a whole. Cf. sense A. 5b.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > [noun]
conversationc1340
dolea1400
repairc1425
fellowshipc1450
frequentation?1520
communion1529
society1531
commerce1537
commercement1537
society1538
trade1555
intercourse1557
company1576
intercommunication1586
interdeal1591
entertain1602
consort1607
entregent1607
quarter1608
commercing1610
converse1610
trucka1625
congress1628
socialty1638
frequency1642
socialitya1649
socialness1727
intercommuniona1761
social life1812
dialogue1890
discourse1963
1812 New Ann. Reg. 1811 Literary Select. & Retrospect 98/2 His conversation was never associated with licentious freedoms or any sorts of oaths... His social life was an example of morality.
1894 Sat. Rev. 1 Sept. 234 A desire to plank down..University men in the midst of the social life of East London.
1932 E. Waugh Black Mischief vii. 257 The Envoy Extraordinary finished his second cup of coffee.., and avoiding the social life of the lawn, pottered round by the back way to the Chancery.
1957 Pract. Wireless 33 727/2 (advt.) You get a welcome break from the usual routine, with sports, games and a great social life.
1996 J. Whedon in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Script Bk. (2000) 1st Season I. 51 Giles. The vampire's not dead? Buffy. No, but his social life is on the critical list.
social listening n. (in marketing contexts) the action or activity of monitoring and analysing social media content relevant to one's product or brand, as a means of improving market knowledge, customer outreach, product development, etc.; originally and frequently as a modifier, as in social listening strategy, social listening tool, etc.Occasionally in other contexts, such as journalism, politics, and the social sciences, with reference to similar monitoring and analysis of social media content related to a particular subject.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > discovery > research > [noun] > into markets or marketing
marketing research1915
market research1920
consumer research1926
social listening2007
2007 @AlbertMaruggi 7 Dec. in twitter.com (accessed 30 June 2021) Owyang on social media monitoring tools..space is open for mid size social listening application.
2012 B2B Marketing Mag. (Nexis) 13 June One activity that any brand can easily engage in is that of social listening to identify those who are talking about them, and then follow them to establish an on-going relationship.
2019 D. Rowles & C. Rogers Podcasting Marketing Strategy 76 Social listening tools..allow you to monitor a number of different social channels to look for activity around certain phrases or topics.
social market n. (a) a society regarded as a marketplace, esp. as an arena for the acquisition of information or exchange of ideas; (b) Politics and Political Economy short for social market economy n. (usually attributive).
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > social structure or system
social system1742
social structure1804
social order1817
social market1846
society > trade and finance > management of money > management of national resources > [adjective] > of or relating to types of economic system
social market1846
market-socialist1950
Eurocheque1969
tiger1981
new economy1986
1846 T. 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.
1936 Internat. 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.
1975 Times 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.
1992 Daily Tel. 24 July 17/2 Hunt says he has always believed in the social market, which he defines as ‘one-nation Conservatism with teeth’.
1995 M. 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)] Politics and Political Economy 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.
ΚΠ
1950 Amer. 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’.
1975 R. 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.
2006 Foreign Affairs Sept. 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.
ΚΠ
1971 P. Kotler & G. Zaltman in Jrnl. Marketing 35 No. 3. 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.
1988 Health Policy & Planning 3 183/2 In Indonesia, social marketing improved nutrition knowledge.
1996 Health 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 media n. websites and applications which enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
ΚΠ
1994 Online Jan. 94/1 What attracted librarians to the Internet? For some cybernauts, usenet, irc, and the other social media of the net are the hooks.
2002 Wall St. Jrnl. 14 Oct. a11/2 America Online is focusing on developing what it calls ‘social media’, meaning the ability to interact about a topic online.
2004 PR Newswire (Nexis) 8 June Chris Shipley..today announced BlogOn 2004: The Business of Social Media, a conference for technology executives, investors, and bloggers who wish to know more about the rapidly growing opportunities in blogging and social networking.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 14 Feb. e2/3 One of the main reasons people embrace social media—Facebook, for instance—is to create identities for themselves and control other people's perceptions of them.
2018 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 11 Jan. 5 The Duchess of Cambridge has warned that social media can become ‘so addictive’, saying it is ‘hard to break away from’.
social medicine n. (a) a branch of science concerned with social and economic aspects of health, disease, and medical care; (b) health care that is funded or administered by a governmental or public body (cf. earlier socialized medicine n. at socialized adj. Compounds).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > art or science of medicine > [noun] > social or community medicine
social medicine1896
community medicine1920
1896 Lancet 16 May 1398/2 Hygiene (including Sanitary Statistics, Social Medicine, Epidemiology, Epizootology, and Technical Sanitary Science).
1925 F. L. Dunham Approach to Social Med. 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.
1952 Let. in Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 52 394/3 It is certainly marvelous not to have to worry in case one gets sick. So I am all for social medicine.
1953 Social Forces 32 52/1 The importance of social medicine lies in the recognition of the individual as a unit of society, and not as a self-sufficing organism.
1994 R. Dingwall in J. Gabe et al. Challenging Med. iii. 56 The argument, then, is that social medicine is an aspect of the governmentality that produced the welfare state.
social mobility n. [originally after German volksthümliche Beweglichkeit (1847 in the passage translated in quot. 1860)] chiefly Sociology = mobility n.1 5.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun] > social mobility
social mobility1860
mobility1866
downward mobility1929
upward mobility1949
spiralism1957
1860 E. C. Otté tr. A. Von Humboldt Cosmos II. Summary p. xvi With the Roman national spirit perished social mobility, publicity, and the maintenance of individuality.
1906 F. J. Turner in Amer. Hist. Rev. 11 304 The ideal of the West was its emphasis upon the worth and possibilities of the common man, its belief in the right of every man to rise to the full measure of his own nature, under conditions of social mobility.
2007 Big Issue 15 Jan. 6/3 Universities will enable and encourage greater social mobility.
social mobilization n. (a) the process by which individuals or sections of society mobilize in order to effect social change; (b) (Sociology) the process by which individuals or sections of society migrate owing to social changes such as industrialization or urbanization.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > change > action resulting in
social actiona1746
mobilization1876
mobilizing1901
social mobilization1919
1919 H. F. Ward New Social Order iii. 109 In the conflict which must be waged against its own nature if life is to be advanced..mankind will need..all its capacity for social mobilization.
1953 K. W. Deutsch Nationalism & Social Communication vi. 114 If there is economic growth, social communication will probably spread and social mobilization will progress.
1972 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 402 33/1 Even great leadership can run into problems sustaining mass social mobilization equal to the task.
1994 W. Connor Ethnonationalism ii. 35 That social mobilization need not lead to a transfer of primary allegiance from the ethnic group to the state is therefore clear.
2008 Star (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 17 Apr. 5 We need to commit to social mobilisation to stop violence against women and children.
social morphology n. [after French morphologie sociale (E. Durkheim 1898, in L’Année sociologique 2 520)] Sociology (the study of) the various forms of social structure and the changes that govern or take place in them.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
1899 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 5 124 The main divisions of the material are placed [by Durkheim] under the heads: Sociology: (1) general, (2) religious, (3) moral, (4) juridical, (5) criminal, (6) economic, (7) social morphology.
1958 Land Econ. 34 124/2 Specialization in a particular economic function can affect the social morphology of the community either directly or indirectly.
2004 J. R. Short Global Metrop. ix. 120 These transnational spaces have profoundly marked the urban landscape of global cities, transforming their social morphology in the process.
social network n. a system of social interactions and relationships; a group of people who are socially connected to one another; (now also) a social networking website; the users of such a website collectively; cf. social networking n.
ΚΠ
1845 J. B. Gough Autobiogr. i. 35 I again became involved in a dissipated social network.
1958 Los Angeles Times 4 Dec. iv. 16/1 It's not where you live, it's the ‘social network’ to which you belong which determines your drinking habits.
1993 M. Ignatieff Scar Tissue 65 Patients with a strong will to live and a supportive social network are likely to survive traumatic illness better than those who are fatalistic and alone.
1998 Business Wire (Nexis) 26 Jan. Visitors can form online communities by exchanging information and experiences in chat rooms, forums, and online social networks.
2007 Guardian 17 Nov. 17/5 The hundreds of millions of people using the booming..social networks such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.
social networking n. the use or establishment of social networks or connections; (now esp.) the use of websites which enable users to interact with one another, find and contact people with common interests, etc. (frequently attributive).
ΚΠ
1973 Public Admin. Rev. 33 529/1 Through the process of consciousness raising and social networking, he becomes aware of the organization and environmental forces impinging upon him.
1998 Boston Globe (Nexis) 24 May e4 Venture capitalists ponied up money for..a provider of Internet-based social networking services.
2008 Nature 10 Jan. 128/3 Social networking sites such as MySpace have allowed artists to promote their music without a record label intermediary.
social order n. (a) orderliness within society; (b) the way in which society is organized, the network of human relationships in society.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > obedience > [noun] > conformity to principles of social order > orderly condition of state or society
peace?a1160
God's peacec1300
good rulec1300
the king's peace1428
quiet?c1450
civilityc1454
civilness1556
composure1702
social order1703
eunomy1721
eunomia1861
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > social structure or system
social system1742
social structure1804
social order1817
social market1846
1703 tr. S. von Pufendorf Of Law of Nature & Nations ii. v. 143/1 In resisting by Natural Right, this Exception is always understood, unless the Social Order [L. ordo socialis] be infring'd by my present resisting.
1792 tr. J. Necker Ess. True Princ. Executive Power Great States vi. 81 These doubts are the natural result of the extreme weakness of executive power, and the authors of the new social order in France have no right to take offence at them.
1817 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 25 Jan. 110 The old charge, that we are seeking to produce riot and confusion, and to destroy ‘Social Order’!
1955 M. Gluckman Custom & Confl. Afr. 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.
2005 I. McEwan Saturday iv. 276 Beware the utopianists, zealous men certain of the path to the ideal social order.
social ownership n. a form of collective ownership in which the control and organization of an industry, company, etc., are shared, esp. by its workers or by the community at large.
ΚΠ
1892 C. O. Ward Labor Catech. of Polit. Econ. (rev. ed.) xii. 255 We understand that this nationalizing the machinery of labor..means with you, their social ownership, management and impartial yield.
1961 Encounter May 63/1 Of the alternative forms of social ownership, the Co-operative Movement is potentially the most attractive.
2004 Evening Chron. (Newcastle) (Nexis) 18 June 6 Foundation hospitals are about social ownership, local governance and greater empowerment of local people.
social partner n. (chiefly in industrial relations) a party, esp. a labour or business organization, viewed as a stakeholder in a cooperative effort.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun]
combination1795
social partner1946
1946 W. J. Smith Spotlight on Labor Unions v. ixx. 130 Granting the trade union..the right to stand on a par with management as a social partner in a mutual, cooperative enterprise.
1975 Times 25 June p. ii/1 The TUC is now accepted by the Wilson Government as a mature social partner.
2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 11 May 41/2 These changes required an entire year of talks with the ‘social partners’—unions, insurance groups, and the public administrations.
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.
ΚΠ
1917 Jrnl. 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.
1967 Jrnl. 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.
2001 Observer 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 planner n. an expert in or advocate of social planning.
ΚΠ
1926 N.Y. Times 11 July vii. 6/4 The formidable millions voted by the Board of Estimate..represent..the fruition of some of the plans which social planners have been making for twenty years or more..and in many cases the removal of actual obstacles now in the way of the able and devoted nurses and doctors in the difficult and exacting service of the city's poor.
1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man xi. 251 Our social planners would undoubtedly benefit from a study of the evolution of individuality in animals.
2003 S. Alpay Trade & Environm. xiii. 193 Let us assume that the contributions of every country to global environmental protection are determined by a social planner.
social planning n. originally U.S. the designing or controlling of urban or economic development, esp. with an emphasis on improving the condition of society as a whole; cf. social engineering n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
1913 I. M. Rubinow Social Insurance xviii. 284 Before workingmen's insurance becomes a subject of social planning and legislation.
1927 H. W. Odum Man's Quest for Social Guidance xxx. 514 No complete program of social planning can neglect the suburban areas, main-line towns, and garden villages.
1964 J. M. 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.
1999 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 11 Sept. 60 Squalor and hypocrisy were set openly within a city which offered at the same time model architecture and advanced social planning.
social problem n. (a) any aspect of society that requires alteration or development, esp. through some form of social engineering; (b) (frequently in plural) a difficulty in forming or maintaining relationships based on interaction.
ΚΠ
1807 Anti-Jacobin Rev. & Mag. 25 470 To find a place for the discontented, is certainly one of its [sc. government's] greatest difficulties. To offer to their imaginations prospects which will occupy their thoughts..is..one solution of this social problem.
a1873 J. 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.
1927 F. M. Thrasher Gang p. xi Village gangs..ordinarily do not become a social problem.
1937 W. de B. Hubert in C. P. Blacker Social Probl. Group? vi. 122 It is not at present known with certainty what proportion of families showing both mental defect and social problems..contribute to the total number of problem families.
1978 Bookseller 17 June 3186/3 A school with only 170 children, a high percentage of whom have severe social problems.
1995 Internet World Aug. 82/1 We can't solve social problems by top-down rules imposed from above.
social process n. a pattern of growth and change in a society over a number of years.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > process
social process1789
process1887
1789 D. Williams Lect. Educ. III. xlviii. 212 It may be easy to imagine various social processes to produce inequality of wealth.
1835 H. Reeve tr. A. de Tocqueville Democracy in Amer. II. x. 429 If republican principles are to perish in America, they can only yield after a laborious social process.
2002 Foreign Policy July–Aug. 82/3 Global social processes are selectively redefined and adapted to suit local cultural exigencies.
social promotion n. (a) advancement in social class or standing; (b) Education (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.
ΚΠ
1840 R. Mudie Man, in his Relations to Society iii. 107 The only alternative to the begging is obtaining the social promotion by fraud.
1907 ‘M. Twain’ Christian Sci. 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.
1948 Washington 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.
1975 N.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.
1998 S. 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.
2001 D. 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.
social psychiatric adj. of or relating to social psychiatry; specializing in social psychiatry.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > psychiatry > [adjective] > types of psychiatry
neuropsychiatric1918
social psychiatric1927
orthopsychiatric1929
Laingian1971
1927 E. Johnson (title) An Analytical Study of Social Psychiatric Work in the United States.
1966 G. 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.
1998 Milbank Q. 76 510 As a social-psychiatric epidemiologist, he is interested in the consequences of social inequality on the health and well-being of disadvantaged people.
social psychiatrist n. an expert or specialist in social psychiatry (in quot. 1920 figurative: a psychiatrist for society).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > psychiatry > [noun] > psychiatrist > types of
psychiatric social worker1918
social psychiatrist1920
neuropsychiatrist1922
orthopsychiatrist1924
child psychiatrist1925
Laingian1972
1920 C. H. Parker Casual Laborer & Other Ess. i. 50 We blindly trust that a ten per cent wage increase will cure that breakdown which a sympathetic social psychiatrist might, if given all power, hope merely to alleviate.
1964 Observer 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.
2003 Independent 24 Nov. i. 16/7 Marius Romme, a Dutch social psychiatrist, has formed a national organisation for people in Holland who hear voices, many of whom live productive lives without clinical intervention.
social psychiatry n. a branch of psychiatry concerned with the social, cultural, and economic aspects of mental health and illness and of psychiatric treatment; cf. social medicine n. (a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > psychiatry > [noun] > types of
neuropsychiatry1918
psychiatric social work1919
social psychiatry1924
child psychiatry1925
orthopsychiatry1929
phenomenology1930
transcultural psychiatry1958
1924 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 81 149 The Round Table Conferences..were well attended..36 formed the group which discussed problems of social psychiatry.
1976 B. H. Kaplan et al. (title) Further explorations in social psychiatry.
2004 Lancet 15 May 1652/3 Social psychiatry must have a renaissance, and professional curricula development and public education are needed.
social reality n. (as a count noun) a reality or fact of life peculiar to a particular society; spec. a phenomenon, such as social class, religion, etc., as experienced by a particular social group; (as a mass noun) reality as conceived by a particular society or social group, dependent on their customs and beliefs.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > customs, values, or beliefs of a society or group > [noun] > social fact or reality
social reality1824
social fact1843
1824 Lit. Magnet 2 142 An Editor, whose heart..is open to the social realities of life.
1859 D. Masson Brit. Novelists iv. 308 It may be that the representation of social reality is..the proper business of the Novel.
1949 W. L. Warner in M. Fortes Social Struct. 4 Agreement among the informants assures the status analyst that the social class system derived from their statements is..an ever present..social reality.
1978 Language 54 449 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.
2000 K. Deaux & B. Major in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 84 The active role of observers in maintaining or creating social reality through their cognitions or behaviors toward a particular individual.
social recession n. a period of widespread deterioration in quality of life among members of a community, especially due to reduced interactions and weakened social bonds.Formed by analogy with economic recession: see economic recession n. at economic n. and adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1930 Binghamton (N.Y.) Press 27 Oct. (City ed.) 5/5 The problems of agriculture of national character are those that portend a social recession of colossal significance.
1960 E. Hobsbawm in Sci. & Society 24 97 It is now commonly admitted that there was, for several decades in the seventeenth century, a period of major economic and social recession.
2020 Straits Times (Singapore) (Nexis) 25 Mar. Long-term isolation, it has been argued, can cause a ‘social recession’ akin to the economic problems caused by the pandemic. Such isolation deprives people of the everyday companionship of friends and colleagues that helps to reduce stress, which texting, video calls and telephone conversations can only mitigate.
social register n. originally and chiefly U.S. (usually with capital initials) (the name of) a directory of persons who are socially prominent (also as adj.); (also in extended use) a union blacklist (rare).
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > [noun] > directory of names or pedigrees
court-guide1814
stud book1834
social register1886
society > communication > book > kind of book > reference book > [noun] > directories
peerage1766
court-guide1814
blue book1822
stud book1834
peerage book1843
social register1886
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > [adjective] > of social register
social register1939
society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > union blacklist
social register1945
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > dispraise or discommendation > [noun] > censure or condemnation > black-listing > black list or book > of employers or employees
blacklist1847
social register1945
1874 N.Y. Times 30 Jan. 4/7 The first two are names of financial magnates of the first water... They are A1, gilt-edged, in the financial and social register.]
1886 (title) Social Register, New York.
1939 C. Boothe Kiss Boys Good-bye Introd. p. xvi The ‘slumming’ social-register aristocrats, now a little wearied of Marx's ‘shocking-pink’ which goes so badly with complexions that are beginning to be a touch green.
1945 Seafarers' 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.
1949 Sat. Evening Post 15 Oct. 142/3 The student body..has a heavy sprinkling of millionaires' sons and Social Register families.
1981 Newsweek 20 July 24/3 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.
1992 M. Anderson Impostors in Temple v. 124 The kind of people who prefer the company only of those listed in the Social Register and who rarely associate with those whom they consider lesser men and women.
social releaser n. = releaser n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > balance of nature > external influences > [noun] > sign stimulus
sign stimulus1934
releaser1935
social releaser1948
1948 N. Tinbergen in Wilson Bull. 60 6 (title) Social releasers and the experimental method required for their study.
1953 N. 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.
2000 Routledge Internat. Encycl. Women 1693 The mother provides emotional support and containment for the child and the child performs behaviors (social releasers) such as crying or clinging that evoke the care behavior of the mother.
social role n. the characteristic or expected social function of a person or thing, esp. in a particular situation or environment; cf. role n. 4.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > [noun] > assumption of behaviour or attitudes > part played or assumed by a person > that a person feels appropriate
role1902
social role1949
1898 G. Simmel in Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 3 834 The vital power and cohesion which they [sc. German community associations] had possessed by virtue of the importance of their former social rôle.
1928 Psychol. Abstr. 2 889 Social role of language.
1949 R. K. Merton Social Theory iii. 110 A conception basic to sociology holds that individuals have multiple social roles and tend to organize their behavior in terms of the structurally defined expectations assigned to each role.
1977 C. A. B. Warren & B. Ponse in J. D. Douglas & J. M. Johnson Existential Sociol. x. 274 Instead, they have been concerned with social roles, role sets, and so on.
2002 Financial Express (Nexis) 21 Dec. Dany calls into question many a notion about the patricentric institution of the family and the social roles of the father and the husband.
social secretary n. a person who arranges the social activities of a person, workplace, or organization.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > [noun] > one who arranges social events or appointments
social secretary1892
community organizer1898
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > non-manual worker > [noun] > clerical > secretarial > specific
private secretary1677
social secretary1892
1892 Lima (Ohio) Daily Times 6 June The young man is employed on salary, with expenses paid, by Senator Brice, of Ohio, and he is known as the senator's ‘social secretary’.
1931 Daily Express 13 Oct. 5/2 When I got my job as social secretary..I got a large salary and lived in luxury.
2007 Bristol Evening Post (Nexis) 26 July 60 The Bristol branch of the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) needs a new social secretary.
social skills n. skills required for successful social interaction.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > [noun] > in something specified
engineership1652
to have one's sea legs on1712
adeptship1816
social skills1923
chops1968
1923 School Rev. 31 116 The extra-curricular activities..furnish an excellent laboratory for the development of social skills.
2004 Daily Tel. 17 May 7/6 Lack of social skills and common sense leave him bewildered by daily life and vulnerable to bullying and exploitation.
social statics n. Sociology (the study of) the organization and structure of a stable society or social group; opposed to social dynamics.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > theories or methods of analysis
reflexivity1662
social statics1843
social causation1848
sociography1881
functionalism1904
class analysis1919
culturalism1919
mass observation1920
survey1927
participant observation1933
participant observing1933
Verstehen1934
panel technique1938
MO1939
ahistoricism1940
historicism1940
technologism1940
action research1945
metasociology1950
pattern variable1951
structural functionalism1951
structuralism1951
panel analysis1955
cliometrics1960
unilinearism1964
technology assessment1966
symbolic interactionism1969
modernization theory1972
processualism1972
postcolonialism1974
decontextualization1976
decontextualizing1980
structurism1989
1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic II. iv. x. 604 The derivative laws of social statics are ascertained by analyzing different states of society,and comparing them with one another, without regard to the order of their succession.
1958 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Method 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).
2002 Sociol. Theory 20 239 Durkheim is often considered to have focused on social statics to the neglect of social dynamics.
social status n. a person's position, standing, or relative importance in society; cf. status n. 3a.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun]
estatec1230
statec1300
rowa1350
qualityc1425
calling1477
range1494
line1528
stature1533
respect1601
station1603
gradationa1616
ordinancea1616
repute1615
spherea1616
distance1635
impression1639
civils1650
footing1657
regimen1660
order1667
sect1709
caste1791
status1818
position1829
social status1833
standpoint1875
1833 Tait's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 237 The vain attempts of the operatives..to escape from the evils of misgovernment, and to raise their social status up to its just and proper level.
1901 G. B. Shaw Socialism for Millionaires in Fabian Tract No. 107. 15 A millionaire does not really care whether his money does good or not, provided he finds his conscience eased and his social status improved by giving it away.
2000 K. Shamsie Salt & Saffron (2001) xxii. 213 What if, because of his social status, Mariam never even considered him a possibility?
social stratification n. the division of society into strata based on social position or class.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun] > division into classes
stratifying1683
stratification1844
social stratification1850
1850 Littell's Living Age 23 Nov. 337/2 So much for the aptitudes..of a geological professor to report upon the social stratification of the great North American republics.
1966 W. Labov (title) The social stratification of English in New York City.
1979 G. Ritzer et al. Sociol. ix. 238 Their contention that because social stratification is universal, it must be a functional necessity.
2005 New Internationalist July 19/1 Sunni Muslims of the Swat region in northern Pakistan have a system of social stratification.
social stratum n. a level or class to which people are assigned according to their social status, education, or income.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun] > distinction of class > level or grade
mannishOE
placec1330
state1340
gree1382
conditionc1384
sectc1384
sortc1386
ordera1400
raff?a1400
degreea1425
countenancec1477
faction?1529
estate1530
race1563
calibre1567
being1579
coat1579
rang1580
rank1585
tier1590
classis1597
strain1600
consequence1602
regiment1602
sept1610
standinga1616
class1629
species1629
nome1633
quality1636
sort1671
size1679
situation1710
distinction1721
walk of life1733
walk1737
stage1801
strata1805
grade1808
caste1816
social stratum1838
station1842
stratum1863
echelon1950
1838 W. Fisk Trav. Europe xxviii. 573 In England..society is formed and maintained on such an artificial principle, that every layer in the social strata is compelled, in a great measure, to keep its position.
1902 L. Stephen Stud. of Biographer IV. vii. 261 The habit of reading spread to a lower social stratum.
1927 P. A. Sorokin Social Mobility 141 There has never existed a society in which..the transition from one social stratum to another has had no resistance.
1997 G. Hosking Russia (1998) iii. vi. 268 These young people mostly came from privileged social strata.
social structural adj. of or relating to social structure.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [adjective] > relating to social structure
structural1861
social structural1902
1902 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 8 231 There is no way of making the intimacy and complexity and interdependence of social structural and functional relations so vivid as by making biological structures and functions illustrate them.
1972 P. Laslett Househ. & Family in Past Time 58 In the relations of children to servants we may..find..important and revealing social structural differences.
social structure n. (a set of) interdependent customs, relationships, and institutions that compose a social system.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > social structure or system
social system1742
social structure1804
social order1817
social market1846
1804 W. Patterson Observ. Climate Ireland 111 In regard to morals, politici, and all social structures, particular and general labours must concur, to advance them to their capable excellence.
1835 H. Reeve tr. A. de Tocqueville 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.
1852 Money (Relig. Tract Soc.) iii. 61 We see here another illustration of the simplicity which reigns throughout the social structure.
1872 H. Spencer in Contemp. Rev. 20 311 Social influences which..facilitate further aggregation with consequent further complexity of social structure.
1968 C. Jacobson tr. C. Lévi-Strauss Struct. Anthropol. I. xv. 277 Studies in social structure have to do with the formal aspects of social phenomena.
2001 Archaeology Mar. 48/1 Rather than tear up the Guaraní social structure..they used the Indian caciques, or chiefs, to run the missions.
social studies n. (frequently with singular agreement; also with the and occasionally in singular form) various aspects or branches of the study of human society, now esp. considered as an educational discipline including the study of politics, economics, sociology, history, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun]
social sciencea1770
sociology1842
social studies1853
humanics1860
societology1883
human ecology1907
macrosociology1941
1853 H. Martineau Positive Philos. of Comte II. 112 The subordination of social science to biology is so evident that nobody denies it in statement, however it may be neglected in practice. This contrariety between the statement and practice is due to something else, besides the faulty condition of social studies.
1926 B. Webb My Apprenticeship v. 217 A subtle combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis is a necessary factor in social studies.
1973 I. Scheffler Reason & Teaching viii. 102 The current state of social study is in a much more primitive state than physical science.
2006 N.Y. Times 26 Mar. (Washington Final ed.) 1/4 Many schools that once offered rich curriculums [are] now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art.
social survey n. a comprehensive examination of some aspect of the social life, history, problems, etc., of a particular locality.
ΚΠ
1844 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Pract. Med. 41 102 We felt, in fact, that a Census ought to be a Social Survey, not a bare Enumeration.
1910 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 4 430 A social survey of the city of Los Angeles is planned.
1997 L. Rostenberg Beginnings in L. Rostenberg & M. Stern Old Books, Rare Friends (1998) 143 It is both an economic and social survey of a good portion of England during the second half of the eighteenth century. Rare First Edition.
social system n. a set of interdependent relationships, customs, and institutions that constitute a society.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > social structure or system
social system1742
social structure1804
social order1817
social market1846
1742Social system [see sense A. 5c].
1853 H. Martineau Positive Philos. of Comte II. vi. i. 11 The passage from one social system to another can never be continuous and direct.
1917 R. Kipling 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.
1997 T. Mackintosh-Smith Yemen (1999) vi. 154 Scores of colonial officials from Africa who were used to a totally different social system.
social table n. a small, kidney-shaped wine table with four legs, often with a receptacle or compartment for wine bottles.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > table > [noun] > other tables
dormant tablec1405
set board1512
chair-table1558
oyster table1559
brushing-table1575
stand board1580
table-chair1671
reading table1749
worktable1762
centre table1775
pier table1778
loo-table1789
screen table1793
social table1793
octoped1822
claw-table1832
bench table1838
mould1842
end table1851
pedestal table1858
picnic table1866
examining table1877
silver table1897
changing table1917
rent table1919
capstan table1927
conference table1928
tricoteuse1960
Parsons1962
overflow table1973
butcher's block1976
1793 Cabinet-makers' London Bk. Prices (ed. 2) 102 (heading) A Gentleman's Social Table.
1830 Liverpool Mercury 26 Feb. 68/4 Stock of a cabinet-maker, deceased, consisting of a variety of Dining and Drawing-room Chairs,..elegant Gothic and Plain Card Tables, Social Table, [etc.].
2003 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 27 Sept. (Features section) 8 With a semi-circular open top and drop-leaf flap to each end is a George III hunt or social table, the ends being united by a brass rail centred by a pivoting arm fitted with a mahogany bottle holder.
social tea n. an informal gathering or tea party, usually held in the afternoon.
ΚΠ
1852 To-day (Boston) 24 Apr. 263/2 Recently, the musician..collected in his room several of his colleagues of the orchestra, under pretence of a social tea.
1926 D. D. C. Taylor Good Housek. Menu & Recipe Bk. 106 Social Tea..Bridge Rolls and Cress, White and Brown Bread and Butter.
1999 M. Lang Women who made News iii. 98 She attended one of the Toronto press club's social teas, where she met the Globe's women's editor.
social unit n. an individual, group, or community, considered as a discrete constituent of a society or larger group.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > [noun] > individual as unit of
social unit1832
socius1895
society > society and the community > [noun] > social group > regarded as having separate identity
social unit1832
1832 Eclectic Rev. 7 290 Even the American theory of free government does not affect to concede to each social unit this hypothetical share of legislative power.
1907 W. 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?
2004 Washington Post 17 Oct. (Home ed.) d2/4 People who are living together in a romantic partnership must also be treated as a social unit.
social weaver n. (also social weaver bird) any of various small, colonially-nesting African weaver birds, esp. (usually) the sociable weaver, Philetairus socius, and (less commonly) either of two birds of the genus Pseudonigrita, Ps. arnaudi and Ps. cabainisi.
ΚΠ
1840 R. M. Zornlin Recreations Physical Geogr. xviii. 305 But the nest of the publican, or social weaver bird, is yet more curious.
1900 Auk 17 190 Nests..are often exceedingly elaborate, retort-shaped affairs, or massed into compound structures.., as in the case of the Social Weaver Bird.
1963 Times 3 Aug. 7/7 Social weavers, Cape buntings, and wagtails flitted around the camp.
1996 Guardian 17 Sept. i. 16/7 The most obvious were the large colonies of social weavers and their huge, many-chambered nests woven into the branches of the camelthorn acacia tree.
social welfare n. the well-being of a community or society, esp. with regard to health and economic matters.
ΚΠ
1720 M. Lowman Serm. preach'd to Societies for Reformation of Manners 7 God himself; who is a God of Order, and must certainly will the Peace and Social Welfare of Mankind.
1802 J. Stephen Crisis Sugar Colonies ii. 54 In the negro, the self-dependency of a rational being, the close connection between his conduct and his natural, or social welfare, are ideas perfectly new.
1912 F. G. D'Aeth in H. Bosanquet Social Conditions in Provincial Towns iv. 50 A Local Committee of Social Welfare..consists of clergy, ministers, and social workers.
1999 D. Haslam Manchester, Eng. ix. 224 Entrepreneurs like Taylor and Makonnen were also in the vanguard of social welfare and pro-African activism.
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the world > animals > mammals > order Cetacea (whales) > suborder Odontoceti > [noun] > family Delphinidae > genus Globicephala (pilot-whale)
social whale1842
pothead1863
ca'ing-whalec1865
pilot whale1867
1842 J. E. De Kay Zool. N.-Y. iv. 133 It is called Black Whale-fish, Howling Whale, Social Whale, and Bottle-head.
a1862 H. D. Thoreau Cape Cod (1865) vii. 130 In the summer and fall sometimes, hundreds of blackfish (the Social Whale..)..are driven ashore.
1884 G. B. Goode in G. B. Goode et al. Fisheries U.S.: Sect. I 11 Globicephalus svineval,..also called Black Whale, Social Whale.
social will n. the collective desires and intentions of a society or group as expressed by its members in general; cf. political will n. at political adj. and n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > wish or inclination > [noun] > of an individual or group
idiosyncrasy1661
social will1853
1853 E. P. Smith Man. Polit. Econ. Introd. 19 The progress of intelligence..tends to substitute certainty for doubt in regard to the conduct of communities, [and] to make the private will and the social will correspond.
1911 J. Ward Realm of Ends vi. 118 Is there in any exact sense a social spirit, a social will, a social end, a social conscience?
2004 J. Thomas Archaeol. & Modernity i. 23 The polarisation of the individual will and the social will had the effect of enhancing the growing dichotomy between the person and the community.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.a1387