Sociable

Sociable, sō′sha-bl, adj. inclined to society: fit for company: companionable: affording opportunities for intercourse.—n. a four-wheeled open carriage with seats facing: a tricycle for two persons side by side: a couch with a curved S-shaped back: (U.S.) an informal party, a social church meeting.—ns. Sōciabil′ity, Sō′ciableness, quality of being sociable: good-fellowship.—adv. Sō′ciably.—adj. Sō′cial, pertaining to society or companionship: relating to men united in a society: inclined for friendly intercourse: consisting in mutual converse: convivial: associating together, gregarious: growing in patches.—v.t. Sō′cialise, to reduce to a social state: to render social.—ns. Sō′cialism, the name given to any one of various schemes for regenerating society by a more equal distribution of property, and esp. by substituting the principle of association for that of competition; Sō′cialist, an adherent of socialism.—adj. Socialist′ic.—ns. Social′ity, Sō′cialness.—adv. Sō′cially.—adjs. Sō′ciātive, expressing association; Societā′rian, Socī′etary, of or pertaining to society.—ns. Socī′ety, fellowship, companionship: a number of persons associated for a common interest: a community or partnership: the civilised body of mankind, those who are recognised as the leaders in fashionable life, the fashionable world generally: persons who associate: any organised association for purposes literary, scientific, philanthropic, or ecclesiastical; Socī′ety-house, a printing office which conforms to the rules of a trade-union; Socī′ety-verse, poetry light and entertaining, treating of the topics of society so called.—Social science, sociology, esp. the branch treating of the existing institutions of men as members of society, the science which treats of social relations; Social War, the war (90-88 b.c.) in which the Italian tribes known as the allies (Socii) fought for admission into Roman citizenship.—Socialism of the Chair, a term first applied about 1872 in ridicule to the doctrines of a school of political economists in Germany whose aim was mainly to better the condition of the working-classes through remedial state-legislation, by factory-acts, savings-banks, insurances against sickness and old age, shortening the hours of labour, sanitation, &c.—also called Professorial socialism, and having much the same ends and methods as the State socialism of Bismarck.—Christian socialism, a movement for applying Christian ethics to social reform, led by Maurice, Kingsley, and others about 1848-52.—The societies, bodies that began to be organised in 1681 for the maintenance of Presbyterian worship in the face of persecution—ultimately forming the Reformed Presbyterian Church. [Fr.,—L. sociabilis—sociāre, to associate—socius, a companion.]