1530s, "companionship, friendly association with others," from Old French societe "company" (12c., Modern French société), from Latin societatem (nominative societas) "fellowship, association, alliance, union, community," from socius "companion" (see social (adj.)).
Meaning "group, club" is from 1540s, originally of associations of persons for some specific purpose. Meaning "people bound by neighborhood and intercourse aware of living together in an ordered community" is from 1630s. Sense of "the more cultivated part of any community" first recorded 1823, hence "fashionable people and their doings." The Society Islands were named 1769 by Cook on his third Pacific voyage in honor of the Royal Society, which financed his travels across the world to observe the transit of Venus.
权威例句
1. Drugs are a scourge that is devastating our society.
毒品是破坏我们社会的一大祸害。
2. She had an entree into the city's culti-vated society.
她得以进入该城的上流社会。
3. The functionalist model of industrial society was subjected to conceptual criticism.
工业社会的实用主义模型在概念上遭到了批判。
4. The Ball was attended by the cream of Hollywood society.
好莱坞的大牌影星们出席了那个舞会。
5. We will end up living in a society where life is cheap.