co-operative, a. (n.)
(kəʊˈɒp(ə)rətɪv)
[f. L. cooperāt- ppl. stem of cooperārī + -ive: on analogy of operative.]
A. adj.
1. Having the quality or function of co-operating; working together or with others to the same end; of or pertaining to co-operation.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 65 Some other kinde of perswasive power cooperative with it. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. iii. iii. 38 Al other causes were but..concauses, and cooperative under God. 1839 James Louis XIV, IV. 2 Not as an immediate, but as a co-operative cause. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) IX. xiv. x. 342 Four great principles..mutually cooperative. 1865 Pall Mall G. 18 May 1 With regard to a young English statesman, we want to know two things mainly—his intrinsic value, and his co-operative capacity. |
2. Pol. Econ. Pertaining to industrial co-operation.
co-operative society: a society or union of persons for the production or distribution of goods, in which the profits are shared by all the contributing members.
co-operative store: a store or shop belonging to and supported by a co-operative society, with the purpose of supplying themselves with goods at a moderate price, and of distributing the profits, if any, among the members and regular purchasers.
(The earliest co-operative societies and stores were established as a first step towards the contemplated communistic organization of society, mentioned under co-operation. But the primary aim was gradually lost sight of, and in 1844 the principle was introduced of giving the profits not to the owners of the business, but, partly at least, to the customers.)
| [1808 Southey in C. Southey Life & Corr. III. xiv. 135 If co-operative labour were as practicable as it is desirable, what a history of English literature might he and you and I set forth!] 1821 Economist No. 1. 15 (Resolution at meeting of Printers, etc., 22 Jan.) That a Society, to be denominated ‘The Co-operative and Economical Society’, be now formed. 1826 Revolt of Bees 175 The power which the first Co-operative Societies will possess..of underselling, in the disposal of their surplus produce, whatever is brought to market from the establishments of private individuals. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. I. 244 That a country of any large extent could be formed into a single ‘Co-operative Society’, is indeed not easily conceivable. 1852 Ld. Goderich in Ld. Ingestre Meliora I. 85 In the end of 1850, the London Central Cooperative Store, as it was then called, was opened. 1865 Sat. Rev. XIX. 79/2 The first developement of the principle which obtained considerable results was the Co-operative Store. 1872 Holyoake Hist. Coop. Rochdale (ed. 7) 56 At the third London Co-operative Congress, 1832, there was reported the existence of a Rochdale Friendly Cooperative Society..It manufactured flannel. 1891 Miss Potter (title), The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain. |
B. n.
1. One who practises or advocates co-operation; a member of a co-operative society.
| 1829 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 148 The scheme of the other co-operatives..tends to secure employment for all its members, and equitable wages. |
2. a. Short for co-operative store. (colloq.)
| 1883 G. Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 126 As we are so close to the Co-operative we might order those things. |
b. Short for co-operative society; also, an association of agriculturists; an association providing services of various kinds to its members.
| 1921 Proc. 3rd Nat. Country Life Conf. 1920 (U.S.) 53 Farmers' co-operatives..are more analogous..to the workmen producers' co-operatives than they are to the consumers' co-operatives. 1936 Nature 23 May 844/2 The organisation of consumers' co-operatives through which the goods produced get to the public. 1943 J. S. Huxley TVA ii. 12 The encouragement of co-operatives and rural industries. 1948 Oxf. Jun. Encycl. I. 112/1 Another organization which is doing valuable work in Chinese rural life is the Chinese Industrial Co-operatives... Their job is to revive the old village handicrafts..and to set up rural industries. 1958 Listener 6 Nov. 717/1 So-called People's Communes [in China]..take the place of the former agricultural co-operatives. Ibid. 13 Nov. 774/1 Most of the flats [in Brasilia]..are being built by housing co-operatives. 1966 Economist 23 Apr. 365/1 (Correspondent in Colorado) There are now nearly a thousand rural electrical co-operatives and 225 telephone co-operatives. |
Hence co-ˈoperatively adv., by means of or in relation to co-operation; co-ˈoperativeness, the state or quality of being co-operative.
| 1655 Sir H. Vane Retired Man's Medit., Bringing his fleshly principles into..useful co-operativeness with his heavenly and spiritual. 1842 De Quincey Cicero Wks. VII. 208 Passively, how far co-operatively it is hard to say, Pompey owed his triumph to mere acts of decoy. 1857 F. L. Olmsted in T. H. Gladstone Englishman in Kansas p. xxxiv, That peculiar political coöperativeness and efficiency which we see in the people of the South. 1889 Co-operative News 3 Aug. 824 The society would be placed in a much better position both co-operatively, and commercially. 1952 C. P. Blacker Eugenics 90 The social instincts and co⁓operativeness of our forebears. |
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Add: co-ˌoperativiˈzation n., the process or policy of organizing or restructuring agriculture, etc. on co-operative principles (esp. in Communist China); cf. collectivization n.
| 1966 F. Schurmann Ideol. & Organization in Communist China 11 We continue, for the Communist period, with a discussion of the three stages of Chinese Communist village policy: land reform, cooperativization, and communization. Ibid. vii. 442 The term ‘cooperativization’ appears as a barbarism in English, yet it is an exact rendering of the term hotsohua, by which Chinese Communists designate the movement. 1972 Times 29 Dec. (Romania Suppl.) p. i/2, The outcome of the manysided development of the national economy in the conditions of industrialization and agricultural cooperativization, has been the continuous expansion of the country's resources. 1976 D. Davin Woman-Work (1978) iii. 101 Some people wrongly believed that the commonest reason for divorce after co-operativization..was financial discontent. 1984 Summary of World Broadcasts: Far East (B.B.C.) 28 Feb. iii. b/3 Cultural and ideological revolutions..must be carried out in the rural areas after the completion of socialist cooperativization. |