a. and sb. Also 6 Sc. sociale, 7 sociall. [a. F. social, -ale (14th cent. in Godef.; = Sp., Pg. social, It. sociale), or ad. L. sociālis, f. socius friend, companion, associate.]
A. adj. † 1. Capable of being associated or united to others. Obs.–1
1562. Winȝet, Last Blast Tromp., Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 45. The proude schismatikis and obstinat heretikis, na wayis sociale to the companie of Christiane Catholiks.
† 2. Associated, allied, combined. Obs.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 20. The former is called the Sole, solitary,… absolute Cause: the latter sociall Causes.
1645. Hammond, View Infallib., 64. ’Tis strange you should couple them together as so sociall things which are so distant and separable.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., ii. 80. There may be subjoyned another social cause that may contribute not a little to the elevating water above its owne Level.
3. Of war: Occurring or taking place between allies or confederates. rare.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 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. Southerne, Fate of Capua, I. i. Is there a worthier than a social war?
b. spec. (with the). In Roman Hist., the war between Rome and the Italian allies, 90–89 B.C. In Greek Hist., the war between the Athenians and their confederates, 357–5 B.C.
(a) 1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 159. When, after the social war, all the burghers of Italy were admitted free citizens of Rome.
1842. W. C. Taylor, Ant. Hist., xv. § 6 (ed. 3), 436. A much more dangerous war, called the Marsic, the Social, or the Italic, was provoked by the injustice with which the Romans treated their Italian allies.
(b) 1788. Lemprière, Class. Dict., Chabrias, an Athenian general,… killed in the Social war.
1808. Mitford, Hist. Greece, IV. xxxvi. 267. The War between the Athenians and their Allies, called the Confederate or Social War.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, V. xliii. 259. Philip seems to have kept aloof from the Social War.
4. Marked or characterized by mutual intercourse, friendliness or geniality; enjoyed, taken, spent, etc., in company with others, esp. with those of a similar class or kindred interests.
Social evening, an evening meeting of a club, society, etc., of the nature of an entertainment; an evening on which this is held.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 429. Thou in thy secresie although alone, Best with thy self accompanied, seek’st not Social communication.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Sat., II. vi. 157. III. 313.
| While thus we spend the social Night, | |
| Still mixing Profit with Delight. |
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, III. xi. 375. The spacious fire-places, where no mark of social cheer remained.
1810. Sir A. Boswell, Edinb., Poems (1871), 50. When met to drink a social cup of tea.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, v. Mrs. Chick and Miss Tox were enjoying a social evening. Ibid. (1864), Lett. (1880), II. 214. They want social rest and social recreation for themselves and their families.
† b. Expressive of or proceeding from sympathy; sympathetic. Obs.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XVI. 236. The prince … Hung round his neck, while tears his cheek bedew; Nor less the father pour’d a social flood!
1745. Collins, Ode Death Col. Ross, x. Where’er from time thou court’st relief, The Muse shall still, with social grief, Her gentlest promise keep.
5. † a. United by some common tie. Obs.
1717. Pope, Iliad, XI. 339. The social shades the same dark journey go. Ibid. (1718), XVI. 1022. Patroclus yields to fear, Retires for succour to his social train.
b. Inclined or disposed to friendly intercourse or converse; sociable.
1729. Pope, On General Withers, 8. Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove Thy Martial spirit, or thy Social love!
1776. Paine, Com. Sense, 64. A few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active land-men in the common work of a ship.
1797–1805. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 339. Sir Edward was wandering, without one social bosom to confide a thought to, through … Sicily.
1816. Jane Austen, Emma, ii. His own friendly and social disposition.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 168. Charles came forth from that school with social habits, with polite and engaging manners.
1878. Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Victory, ii. He was very happy and social.
c. Consisting or composed of persons associated together in, or for the purpose of, friendly intercourse.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 234. The contest went on in both Houses of Parliament, in every constituent body, in every social circle.
1866. Month, IV. 54. The social body at Balliol was strengthened between the years 1830 and 1840 by three important additions.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 652. The club is strictly a ‘social’ one.
6. Living, or disposed to live, in companies or communities; desirous of enjoying the society or companionship of others.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., vii. (1738), 145. Man is a social creature: that is, a single man, or family, cannot subsist, or not well, alone out of all society.
1744. Harris, Three Treat. (1841), 62. Let this then be remembered,… that man by nature is truly a social animal.
1853. Trench, Proverbs, 127. Man not being merely accidentally gregarious, but essentially social.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 279. In the use of the senses, as in his whole nature, man is a social being.
b. Zool. Living together in more or less organized communities; belonging to a community of this kind.
1831. Insect Miscellanies, 412/1. Social leaf-mining caterpillars…. Social wasps.
1840. trans. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 599. The Apiariæ are either solitary or social in their habits. Ibid., 602. The terminal subgenus of Social Bees.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iv. (1860), 87. In social animals it [i.e., natural selection] will adapt the structure of each individual for the benefit of the community.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. (1879), 57. Bees, Wasps, Ants, and other Social Insects.
transf. 1864–5. J. G. Wood, Homes without Hands, xxi. (1879), 411. We now come to the Social Habitations and give precedence to those which are constructed by Mammalia.
c. In specific names (see quots. and cf. SOCIABLE a. 1 b).
1781. Pennant, Quad., II. 459. The Social Rat … inhabits the Caspian desert.
1801. Shaw, Gen. Zool., II. I. 93. The Social Mouse is a native of the Caspian deserts.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Africa (1902), 57/2. Many of them [trees] were inhabited by whole colonies of the social grosbeak.
1869. J. Burroughs, in Galaxy, Aug., 173. The social-sparrow, alias ‘hair-bird,’ alias ‘red-headed chipping bird,’ is the smallest of the sparrows.
1884. Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 11. Globicephalus svineval,… also called Black Whale, Social Whale.
d. Bot. Of plants: Growing in a wild state in patches or masses with other members of the same species, esp. so as to cover a large area.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Physical Sci., xxvii. 274. Very few social plants, such as grasses and heaths that cover large tracts of lands, are to be found between the tropics.
1855. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 268. One of the plants which the botanist terms social because never found growing singly, but always in numbers.
e. Of ascidians, etc.: Compound.
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. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., x. 610. In the compound or social Tunicata, many ascidiozooids … are united by a common test.
7. Pertaining, relating, or due to, connected with, etc., society as a natural or ordinary condition of human life.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 16. The nature of man considered in his … social capacity leads him to a right behaviour in society.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 180, ¶ 5. He that devotes himself to retired study naturally sinks from omission to forgetfulness of social duties.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 411. The social reason quickly recals him to personal interest.
1842. Combe, Digestion, Pref. p. xviii. The degree to which its morbid derangements under mine health, happiness, and social usefulness.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 10. Pale unshapen embryos of social sympathy.
b. Of life, conditions, institutions, etc.
Social contract, the mutual agreement which, according to Rousseau’s Contrat social (1762), forms the basis of human society.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. i. 28. When we go out of this World, we may pass into … a new State of Life and Action…. And this new State may naturally be a social one.
1765. Akenside, Pleas. Imag., II. 82. Science herself: on whom the wants and cares Of social life depend.
1817. Cobbett, Wks., XXXII. 109. The old charge, that we are seeking to produce riot and confusion, and to destroy ‘Social Order’!
1849–50. Alison, Hist. Europe, I. iii. § 90. 351. Rousseau’s dreams on the social contract.
1861. Mill, Utilit., iii. 46. The social state is … so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man.
1868. T. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xiv. 183. The condition of social life is that different persons should be engaged in different pursuits.
c. Of rank, position, etc., or of persons in respect of these.
1849. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., II. 316. Enjoying … an equality of social rank.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vii. 273. I shall only be following out Albert Smith’s theory, who says that the colonies are only refuges for destitute social suicides.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. 78. The rulers of other European states were ready to receive him as their social peer.
d. Social evil, prostitution. Also attrib. and transf. (quot. 1865).
1857. (title) The Greatest of Our Social Evils: Prostitution.
1863. Sat. Rev., 626/1. The nauseous category of social-evil literature.
1864. Slang Dict., 239. Social evil, a name beginning to be applied to street-walkers in consequence of the articles in the newspapers being so headed.
1901. J. S. Moffat, in Contemp. Rev., March, 323. Those slums [of Cape Town] have become a pandemonium of drunkenness and the social evil.
8. Psychol. (See quots.)
1785. Reid, Intell. Powers, 73. The social as well as the solitary operations of the mind. Ibid. (1788), Active Powers, V. vi. 664. I call those operations social which necessarily imply social intercourse.
9. Concerned with, interested in, the constitution of society and the problems presented by this: a. Of persons.
1841. C. Bray, Philos. Necessity, II. 467. A thorough Social Reformer.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 242/1. One of the most difficult topics that the social philosopher can deal with.
1898. Daily News, 12 Oct., 4/4. The Church had always been social and humanitarian.
b. Of sciences, theories, etc.
1841. C. Bray, Philos. Necessity, II. 404. Social Reform.
1845. Polson, Eng. Law, in Encycl. Metrop., II. 802/1. Social Economy.—Laws which directly consult the health, wealth, convenience or comfort of the public, may properly be referred to this head.
1846. Lewes, Biogr. Hist. Philos., IV. 249. The conception of a social science is due to M. Comte.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., vi. 239. Our linguistic researches will be bounded by the limits of social science and social archæology.
10. Social Democrat, a member of a political party having socialistic views.
1877. St. James’s Gaz., 7 March (Cassell). This long period of activity has enabled the Social Democrats to found no fewer than twenty-five clubs in London.
1899. Daily News, 19 July, 5/4. The Clericals did not shrink from concluding a regular pact with the Social Democrats.
11. Comb. with other adjs., as social-democratic, -political, -religious.
1890. Gross, Gild Merch., I. 163. At Barnstaple … the Gild Merchant seems to have been transformed into a social-religious gild.
1893. W. C. Robinson, trans. Ten Brink’s Hist. Eng. Lit., II. IV. 24. Many influences … worked together to produce that social-democratic rising.
1899. Daily News, 21 June, 4/3. Parliament is at last tired of social-political experiments, which betray great zeal, but little wisdom.
B. sb. † 1. A companion, associate. Obs. rare.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 426. O Socials! we’re not ignorant of losses.
2. A social gathering or party, esp. one held by members of a club or association.
1876. E. W. Clark, Life Japan, 124. The women … keep their tongues going as briskly during the tea-picking as their sisters or other climes … do at their tea-drinking socials.
1893. The Month, Aug., 157. The social given by the ladies of the Altar Society was a grand success.
