society
(səʊˈsaɪɪtɪ)
Also 6 societe(e, societye, 6–7 -tie, 7 socyetye, sosiety.
[ad. OF. societe (mod.F. société, = It. società, Sp. sociedad, Pg. sociedade), ad. L. societas, f. socius companion, etc.]
I. 1. a. Association with one's fellow men, esp. in a friendly or intimate manner; companionship or fellowship. Also rarely of animals (quot. 1774).
| 1531 Elyot Gov. (1834) 173 Society, without which man's life is unpleasant and full of anguish. 1581 W. Stafford Exam. Compl. ii. (1876) 49 To the intent men may knowe that they haue neede one of anothers helpe, and thereby loue and societie to growe among all men the more. 1621 in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) 305 Till now wee have not had to doe with them in matter of moment, but in frendly sosiety. 1658 T. Wall Charact. Enemies Ch. 59 It is separation..that makes them void of Christian society, and common Morality. 1736 Butler Anal. i. v. 121 Want of everything of this kind..would render a man as uncapable of Society, as want of language would. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 153 As Nature has formed the rapacious class for war, so she seems equally to have fitted these for peace, rest, and society. 1861 Mill Utilit. iii. 47 Society between equals can only exist on the understanding that the interests of all are to be regarded equally. |
b. With possessive pronoun or genitive.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 166, I do dine to day at the fathers of a certaine Pupill of mine... I beseech your Societie. 1663 S. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. (1687) 35 It is a thousand to one but they will find the means..to insinuate themselves into their society again. 1779 Mirror No. 64, I had fancied that..the want of their society had deprived us of the ease and gaiety of discourse. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxxii, Forced on each other's society, the two desolate women became companions, if not friends. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) II. 473 A holy anchorite, who had been for forty years cut off from the society of men. |
c. Association or intercourse
with or
between persons, etc. Also
fig.| 1563 Foxe A. & M. 973/2 The societie betwixt Christ & vs, is promised to them that take bread and wyne. c 1610 Women Saints 11 There was such friendship, societie, and familiarity betweene the Religious of that contrie and England, that [etc.]. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. ii. §5 An Island, where he may have no society with mankind. 1690 Locke Govt. ii. ii. Wks. 1727 II. 162 One of those wild savage Beasts, with whom Men can have no Society nor Security. 1803 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 119 The members who are there are not willing to acknowledge they have any society with him. 1831 Scott Cast. Dang. xvii, You will..best fulfil the intentions of those by whose orders you act, by holding no society with me whatever, otherwise than is necessary. |
d. With
a and
pl. An instance of association or companionship with others.
rare.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. iv. 9 Other barres he layes be⁓fore me, My Riots past, my wilde Societies. 1780 Mirror No. 71. Renouncing a society in which the secret admonitions of his heart frequently told him he could not continue. |
e. concr. Persons with whom one has, or may have, companionship or intercourse. Also
transf. of plants.
† In early use also with
poss. pronouns or article.
In some instances the abstract sense is also implied.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 3 Our selfe will mingle with Society, And play the humble Host. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 411 None are so readie to blame men therein as their Societie. 1696 Caldwell P. (Maitland Cl.) I. 171, I lodged..att the 2 pigeons, where I had a most desyreable societie. 1719 De Foe Crusoe I. 292 Having now Society enough, and our Number being sufficient to put us out of Fear of the Savages. 1759 Mills tr. Duhamel's Husb. ii. ii. (1762) 260 Wheat and other plants love society. 1816 Jane Austen Emma iii, Mr. Woodhouse was fond of society... He liked very much to have his friends come and see him. 1853 Reade Chr. Johnstone 256 They have plenty of society, real society. 1872 Ruskin Fors Clav. 14 For all society he had two friends. |
2. The state or condition of living in association, company, or intercourse with others of the same species; the system or mode of life adopted by a body of individuals for the purpose of harmonious co-existence or for mutual benefit, defence, etc.:
a. In reference to man.
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) A vj b, Long it was ere that manne knewe hymself,..so that all thynges waxed sauage, the yearth vntilled, societie neglected. 1599 Mirrour of Policie 120 Societie is an assemblie and consent of many in one. 1642 Charles I Declaration 12 Aug. 23 Against the Laws of Society and civill Conversation. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet 172 A due reverence in the first place towards God.., then towards Society wherein we live. 1744 Harris Three Treat. (1841) 62 We are fitted with powers and dispositions which have only relation to society, and which, out of society, can nowhere else be exercised. 1782 V. Knox Ess. xvi. (1819) I. 93 Is not this system [Christianity], whether well or ill founded, friendly to society? 1835 I. Taylor Spir. Despot. ii. 58 The inestimable advantages of living in society are unavoidably burdened with some partial evils. a 1862 Buckle Misc. Wks. I. 5 In the earliest stages of society there are many arts, but no sciences. |
b. In reference to certain animals, insects, etc.
| 1794 S. Williams Hist. Vermont (1809) I. 114 The society of beavers seems to be regulated and governed, altogether by natural dispositions, and laws. 1826 G. Samouelle Direct. Collect. Insects & Crust. 39 Wasps, like bees, live in society. 1834 M'Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 390 Its larva lives on the same trees, and frequently in society. |
3. a. The aggregate of persons living together in a more or less ordered community.
| 1639 N. N. tr. Du Bosq's Compl. Woman i. 17 Where as then was no other sinne in society then lying, a genuine playnesse..were enough. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 431 In doing one action after another, tending to a Common Good, or the good of Humane Society. 1749 Lady Luxborough Let. to Shenstone 24 June, You may be busied to the benefit of society without stirring from your seat. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. i. 5 In few cases has the peace of society been so much disturbed. 1841 Nonconformist I. 281 The principles by which the aristocracy have gained..their Sindbad seat on the shoulders of society. 1873 Hamerton Intell. Life vi. i. 195 Society has only one law, and that is custom. |
b. With defining or limiting
adj.;
esp. good society (
cf. next).
| 1779 Mirror No. 13, The varied objects which present themselves in cultivated society. 1816 J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 151 The wars of the period..repressed to a most deplorable degree, what is properly understood by good society. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. xliii, There were masquerades and ridottos frequented by all the fine Society. 1893 K. A. Sanborn Truthf. Woman S. California 40 In regard to society, I find that the ‘best society’ is much the same all over the civilized world. |
c. The aggregate of leisured, cultured, or fashionable persons regarded as forming a distinct class or body in a community;
esp. those persons collectively who are recognized as taking part in fashionable life, social functions, entertainments, etc. Also with
a and
the.
| (a) 1823 Byron Juan xiii. xcv, Society is now one polish'd horde, Form'd of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored. 1846 Mrs. Gore Engl. Char. 15 The press gossips for society, because society makes no secret of its love of gossiping. 1856 Merivale Rom. Emp. xli. (1871) V. 124 Ovid is eminently the poet of society. 1893 Grant Allen Scallywag I. 6 Who is Mr. Gascoyne, and who is Mr. Thistleton?.. Are they in society? |
| (b) 1840 Thackeray Barber Cox Feb., The paragraphs in the papers about Mr. Coxe Coxe..had an effect in a wonderfully short space of time, and we began to get a very pretty society about us. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xxi, Intelligence and courtesy in the one sex, and gentleness and natural grace in the other, making a society not to be ridiculed in the mass. |
| (c) 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair lxii, The performance over, the young fellows lounged about the lobbies, and we saw the society take its departure. |
d. Personified.
| 1784 Cowper Task iv. 498 Till at last Society..Shakes her encumber'd lap, and casts them out. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. vi, A huge..Apron, wherein Society works (uneasily enough). 1877 ‘Rita’ Vivienne i. i, Society shrugged its shoulders. 1879 Daily Telegr. 15 May, He sinks, smiling, into the arms of Society, and Society..eats him up. |
e. alternative society: the aggregate of (predominantly young) persons whose cultural values and habits of association purport to represent a preferable and cogent alternative to those of the established social order. Usu. with definite article.
| 1969 It 13–25 June 21/3 Brother Simon Tugwell is planning a 3-day talk-in on the alternative society. 1971 Guardian 16 Mar. 10/4 American cities seem full of young people wanting to ‘drop out’—but what do they drop into? It is called ‘The Alternative Society’ and it is already becoming a vogue term. 1971 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Dec. 1621/5 Sorel, like Nietzsche, preached the need for a new civilization of makers and doers, what is now called a counter-culture or an alternative society. 1975 D. Lodge Changing Places v. 164 A middle-aged parasite on the alternative society. |
II. † 4. a. The fact or condition of taking part with others or another in some thing or action; participation.
Obs.| 1534 More Treat. Passion Wks. 1333/1 The societie of al saintes in the mistical body of Christ. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 126 For the kynges societie and conjunction..they yelde him harty thankes. Ibid. 218 Who hath perswaded the bisshop of Rome and the French king to the Societie of this war. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage iv. iii. I. 298 Pacorus being received into Societie of the Kingdome with his father. 1758 Ann. Reg. 16 The Prussians,..inspired by a society of danger with their King,..totally defeated the Austrians. |
† b. A sharing or use in common.
Obs.—1| 1699 Temple Hist. Eng. 14 One Custom there was among the Britains which seems peculiar to themselves,..which was a Society of Wives among certain numbers, and by common consent. |
† 5. The fact or condition of being connected or related; connexion, relationship; union or alliance; affinity.
Obs. a. Const.
with or
between (some thing or person).
| (a) 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 B iv, The sayd indication hath no maner of societe with the cause prymy⁓tyfe. 1561 J. Daus Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 193 He hath the number of the name of the beast, which hath a societie wyth the beast, which societie that number bewrayeth or sheweth. 1610 P. Barrough Meth. Physick iii. xxv. (1639) 143 The veine in the right arme..having society with the veine which is called Vena cava. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 231 The universal Spirit is Water,..the Society of the Water with the Sun produces Animals, Vegetables and Minerals. |
| (b) 1601 Holland Pliny I. 5 There is not..so great societie betweene heauen and vs, as [etc.]. 1620 Venner Via Recta 110 There is so great societie betwixt it and the heart. |
† b. Const.
of or
in (something).
| 1562 Cooper Answ. Priv. Masse (1850) 130 You allege a perpetual society of the body and blood, which ye call Concomitantiam. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 16 If no writer had recorded, that we Englishmen are descended from Germanes,..the society of their tongues would easily confirme the same. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. (1650) 43 This is a fallacy of æquivocation, from a society in name inferring an Identity in nature. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. ii. iii. 90 The Consent of Vicinity makes nothing to the purpose,..nor society in the same Office. 1771 Ann. Reg. ii. 25/2 By long society in party, the sentiments of these men in politics had come to be the same. |
† 6. a. The state or condition of being politically confederated or allied; confederation.
Obs.| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 25 b, To exhorte and requyre the kynge of Englande, to entre hys company and societee in armes. 1579 J. Stubbes Gaping Gulf B vij b, Absoluing our neyghbour kinges of any auncient leage or late oth of societie. 1623 Bingham Hist. Xenophon 87 You haue now an opportunitie presented vnto you..by entring into societie of war with vs, to be reuenged. 1665 Manley Low C. Wars 974 Many Kings, Princes, and Nations, began to respect the Society and Alliance of Holland. |
† b. A political alliance, league, or compact.
| 1600 Holland Livy xxiii. 472 A league and societie was concluded betweene Philip the King of the Macedonians and Anniball. 1606 ― Suetonius 8 Hee entred likewise into a Societie with them both, vpon this contract, That [etc.]. |
† 7. a. Partnership or combination in or with respect to business or some commercial transaction.
| 1569 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 681 The said Johnne enterit in societie with the said abbot. 1574 Ibid. II. 513 Not keping societie in the furthering and furnissing of money..as the partinaris..sall appoint. 1592 West 1st Pt. Symbol. §26 Societie is a contract by consent about a thing to be had and used in common on both sides. 1650 Bounds Publ. Obed. (ed. 2) 10 Partner-ship or Society (as the Civill Law cals it). |
† b. Co-operation; assistance.
Obs.—1| 1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 34 As for him which..is addicted without society, by his continuall laboure, to profit this nation. |
III. 8. a. A number of persons associated together by some common interest or purpose, united by a common vow, holding the same belief or opinion, following the same trade or profession, etc.; an association.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 28 b, The societe of saynct George vulgarely called the order of the garter. 1581 Allen Apol. 29 b, The Seminarie of the Romane Clergie, and other Colleges of the most famous Societie of the name of Iesus. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Pref., Wks. (1653) 12 It hath divers wayes brought advantage and good to the whole Societie of Surgeons. 1637 Decree of Star Chamb. conc. Printing ¶9 The Company or Society of Stationers. a 1720 Sewel Hist. Quakers (1795) I. p. xii, Others of the same Society have not looked upon this as a pattern to imitate. 1741 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 301, I read over the names of the United Society. 1783 in Beatson Pol. Index (1788) II. 292 A Society or Brotherhood, to be called Knights of the illustrious Order of St. Patrick. 1832 Scott Redgauntlet let. vii. note, An old lady of the Society of Friends. 1867 Ruskin Time & Tide i. §3 All bankers should be members of a great national body, answerable as a society for all deposits. 1877 Mozley Univ. Serm. iv. 77 The Church is undoubtedly in its design a spiritual society, but it is also a society of this world as well. |
b. A corporate body of persons having a definite place of residence.
| 1588–9 Act 31 Eliz. c. 6 §1 Colledges, Churches Collegiat, Churches Cathedrall, Scoles, Hospitalls, Halles, and other like Societies. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §96 In the Society of the Inner Temple, his son made a notable progress. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 98 A society of Benedictine monks was lodged in Saint James's Palace. Ibid. viii. 285 The society consisted of a president, of forty fellows, of thirty scholars [etc.]. |
9. a. A collection of individuals composing a community or living under the same organization or government.
| a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. i. x. (1584) 10 A common wealth is called a society or common doing of a multitude of free men. 1639 Heywood London's Peaceable Est. Wks. 1874 V. 358 Greeneland, Muscovy, and Turkey, of which three noble societies you are at this present governour. 1690 Locke Govt. ii. vii. Wks. 1727 II. 182 No Political Society can be, nor subsist without having in itself the Power to preserve the Property..of all those of that Society. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1851) I. 395/2 Every society has more to apprehend from its needy members than from the rich. 1805 Wordsw. Prelude xi. 394 There is One great society alone on earth: The noble Living and the noble Dead. 1872 Morley Voltaire (1886) 3 The Calvinism which in so many important societies displaced it [Catholicism]. |
b. In more limited sense: A company; a small party. Now
rare or
Obs.| 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 16 b, Harquebuziers..being..aduanced and retired with some societies, or Cameradas of loose shot, are of good effect. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 21 Therefore be abhorr'd, All Feasts, Societies, and Throngs of men. 1637 Milton Lycidas 179 There entertain him all the Saints above, In solemn troops, and sweet Societies. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Amb. 203 We..entred into a little society among our selves, and..went all together in a Company. 1725 De Foe Voy. r. World 50 This was not a Business that admitted giving them [i.e. mutineers] Time to club and Cabal together, and form other Societies or Combinations. 1777 W. Dalrymple Trav. Spain & Portugal xv, The company..making little societies of conversation till towards eleven o'clock. |
| fig. 1594 Selimus (Temple Cl.) 1984 We will have hog's cheek, and a dish of tripes, and a society of puddings..: a society of puddings? did you mark that well-used metaphor? |
c. Zool. A group of animals of the same species organized in a co-operative manner.
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 503/2 Perhaps the most remarkable fact as regards the higher societies of insects is that though the individuals composing a community are the offspring of one mother..yet they do not resemble their parents. 1925 A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Entomol. 522 In certain species of the order [Hymenoptera] the individuals have acquired the habit of living together in great societies, as in the case of the ants. 1964 V. B. Wigglesworth Life of Insects xiv. 237 All insect societies are overgrown families. 1971 E. O. Wilson Insect Societies ii. 6/2 Bird flocks, wolf packs, locust swarms, and groups of communally nesting bees are good examples of elementary societies. |
10. a. A number of persons united together for the purpose of promoting some branch of study or research by means of meetings, publications, etc.
| 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 16 Printed with Licence, By John Martyn, and James Allestry, Printers to the Royal Society. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 1 A Learn'd Society of late..Agree'd upon a Summer's Night To search the Moon by her own light. 1763 Museum Rust. I. 71 A Letter..from a Member of the Society for encouraging Arts, &c. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 731 A Society of intelligent Englishmen was formed at London.., the object of which was to prosecute scientific research. 1827 Scott Chron. Canongate ii, An edition, limited according to the rules of that erudite Society [sc. the Bannatyne Club]. 1844 Maitland Dark Ages 386 At the time when this suggestion was made, the English Historical Society was just being formed. 1900 L. Huxley Life Huxley (1903) II. i. 4 He became President of the Geological Society in 1872. |
b. A number of persons meeting together,
esp. for the purpose of discussion or debate, conviviality or sociability.
| 1673 Humours Town 52 You take a wrong notion of our Societies from them; here we have always a numerous Club. 1759 Johnson Idler No. 48 ¶9 He always runs to a disputing society. 1777 Cowper Lett. Wks. (1876) 36 He did not belong to our Thursday society. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xlvi, He never would sit down before Sedley at the club even, nor would he have that gentleman's character abused by any member of the society. 1898 Daily Telegr. 6 Jan. 9/6 The association for debating all unforbidden subjects which..was known as ‘The Society’. |
c. U.S. = congregation n. 7.
| 1828–32 Webster s.v., In Connecticut, a number of families united and incorporated for the purpose of supporting public worship, is called an ecclesiastical society. 1889 M. E. Wilkins A Far-away Melody (1891) 257 More people went into the Baptist Church, whose Society was much the larger of the two. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 4 Nov. 4/2 The unit of the sect [the Methodists] is ‘the Society’—composed practically of the communicants attending a particular church. |
d. A commercial company or association.
| 1890 Daily News 13 Nov. 7/1 The Investors Protection Society... The society was formed to protect investors and others by advising generally free of charge. |
† 11. A meeting or gathering.
Obs.| 1712 in W. S. Perry Hist. Coll. Am. Col. Ch. I. 192, I can't attend the Society as I would very gladly do. 1741–3 Wesley Extr. Jrnl. (1749) 18 At the society which follow'd, many cried after God. |
12. Ecol. A community of plants within a mature consociation characterized by one or more subdominant species.
| 1899 Bot. Gaz. XXVII. 111 A plant society is defined as a group of plants living together in a common habitat and subjected to similar life conditions. The term is taken to be the English equivalent of Warming's Plantesamfund, translated into the German as Pflanzenverein. 1905 F. E. Clements Res. Methods in Ecol. 296 For these areas controlled by principal species, but changing from aspect to aspect, the term society is proposed. 1916 ― Plant Succession vii. 130 The society is a community characterized by a subdominant or sometimes by two or more subdominants... The society comes next below the consociation in rank, but it is not necessarily a division of it, for the same society may extend through or recur in two or more consociations, i.e., throughout the entire association. 1932 Fuller & Conard tr. Braun-Blanquet's Plant Sociol. xiii. 306 The..‘societies’ of Clements and Weaver are based entirely upon the dominance of certain species; they are, thus, quite incapable of replacing our association in any system of classification. 1932 Ecology XIII. 118 A single pair of terms, society and socies (developmental), has been quite generally applied to subordinate assemblages within associes and associations. 1952 P. W. Richards Tropical Rain Forest xi. 259 Shorea curtesii..dominates small societies on steep slopes in the hill rain forests of the Malay Peninsula. |
IV. 13. attrib. and
Comb. a. With reference to religious bodies, as
society-communion,
society meeting,
society men,
society people,
society-room, etc.
| 1685 W. Smith in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827) II. 83 [They would] rejoice with all such as are joined in this Society-Communion. 1721 Wodrow Hist. Suff. Ch. Scotl. (1831) IV. 462/2 This year [1688], I find..that the society people made a large collection of money for the relief of several of their number. 1725 P. Walker in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827) I. 160 The..keeping up of Society-meetings for Prayer and Conference. 1744 Wesley Wks. (1872) VIII. 38 The enlarging the society-room to near thrice its first bigness. 1828 Irving Last Days 37 These texts of Scripture..will enable you to confute a whole platform of society orators. 1870 Burton Hist. Scot. VII. 529 The Sanquharians took also the name of ‘Society men’, as being distributed in ‘select societies united in general correspondence’. |
b. With reference to cultured or fashionable society, as
society journal,
society lodging,
society man,
society paper, etc.
| 1693 Wood Life 15 June, Peter Wood,..put aside, as 'twas then said, because he was too precise and religious and therefore not fit to make a societie man. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack i, He began to have clothes on his back, to leave the ash-hole, having gotten a society lodging. 1825 C. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 106 Society Whigs and society Tories. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair li, ‘The best’ foreigners (as the phrase is in our noble and admirable society slang). 1868 Sala Lamb's Wks. I. p. xlii, Hook, with whom society-seeking was a vocation and a passion. 1875 Mrs. Stowe We & Our Neighbours 205 My sisters..are society girls in the best sense. 1880 J. C. Harris Uncle Remus viii. 203 ‘The old man's mind is wandering,’ said the society editor. 1882 J. D. McCabe N.Y. by Sunlight & Gaslight 228 An engagement..is promptly announced in one of the ‘Society journals’. c 1884 (title) A society beauty. 1885 Church Times 12 June 151 As one of the ‘Society’ papers suggested in its disgraceful cartoon. 1886 Fortn. Rev. Apr. 501 If society-haunting afforded the necessary relaxation. 1888 St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat 29 Apr. 22/2 The brainy paragraphs thrown off by one society reporter. 1891 Girl's Own Paper 21 Mar. 385/1, I..said I was tired of society life, and..liked nursing better than anything. 1893 ‘S. Grand’ Heavenly Twins i. xv. 109 You would not counsel a son of yours to marry a society woman of the same character as Major Colquehoun. 1895 T. K. Gavon Fancy Notions by a Yankee Notion Clerk 28 Already we have cattle kings, coal barons, merchant princes and society queens. 1910 E. M. Forster Howards End iii. 19 She did not..pretend that nothing had happened, as a competent society hostess would have done. 1910 Chesterton G. B. Shaw 152 A pleasant society lady, Lady Cicely Waynefleet. 1911 G. S. Porter Harvester xx. 508 He scanned the society columns of the papers. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey i. ix. 73 A society painter and his wife. 1947 ‘N. Blake’ Minute for Murder ii. 32 He had been a society photographer before the war. 1949 H. MacLennan Precipice i. 144 A picture I saw of her in the society page of The New York Times. 1950 New Yorker 8 Apr. 76/3 Hearst's society columnist, Cholly Knickerbocker. 1950 E. H. Gombrich Story of Art xxiii. 349 Vandyke had established a standard of society portraits. 1955 L. Feather Encycl. of Jazz x. 347 Society band,..band that plays innocuous commercial dance music. 1956 C. Cockburn In Time of Trouble xvii. 228 The secretary was away attending some society wedding. 1957 D. Piper Eng. Face viii. 199 Behind almost all society portraiture before Reynolds there is a basic, and dead, symmetry. 1959 G. D. Painter Marcel Proust I. vii. 85 In the name ‘Le Gandare’ Proust alludes to the society portraitist La Gandara. Ibid. xi. 181 A little bird..informed the society columnist of Le Gaulois. 1976 C. Storr Unnatural Fathers iii. 36 He had had a long liaison with a society beauty. 1977 Time 26 Sept. 36/1 The society columns buzzed regularly for years with accounts of their parties and travels aboard an assortment of yachts. |
c. With reference to societies instituted for special purposes, as
society goods,
society man,
society membership,
society room,
society secretary, etc.;
society hand,
house (see
quots. 1888).
| 1765–8 Erskine Inst. Law Scot. iii. iii. §27 He is..intitled, upon the division of the society-goods, to..a share. 1861 Mayhew Lond. Lab. III. 221 The Cabinet-makers..consist, like all other operatives, of two distinct classes, that is to say, of society and non-society men. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 128 Society hands, those belonging to and working under the rules of a trade society. Ibid., Society houses, establishments conforming to the rules and paying the recognized scale price for work. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 809 Society rooms, available upon production of a society membership ticket, or an introduction from a society secretary. |
Hence
soˈcietyish,
soˈcietyless adjs.| 1788 F. Burney Diary 23 Oct., Societyless, and bookless, and viewless as I am. 1863 Wilberforce Sp. Missions (1874) 4 The tendency of all that is to cultivate party feeling within the Church..and so by degrees to become one-sided, or what I may call societyish. |