English Online Dictionary. What means sociology? What does sociology mean?
English
Etymology
From French sociologie, coined by Auguste Comte in 1834, itself a combination of Latin socius (“companion, fellowship”) and the Greek suffix Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía), itself from Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos, “word, knowledge”), from socio- + -logy.
Previous mentions of the field in English usually referred to it as social physics.
Pronunciation
- enPR: sō-shē-ŏl′-əjē
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌsəʊsiːˈɒlədʒiː/, /ˌsəʊʃiːˈɒlədʒiː/
Noun
sociology (plural sociologies)
- A social science that studies society, human social interaction, patterns of social relationships, and the interactions of culture. Through both theory and applied research, it engages subject matters across a range of microanalysis, mesoanalysis, and macroanalysis.
Meronyms
- See also Thesaurus:sociology
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- anthropology
- psychology
References
Further reading
- "sociology" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 295.