Quote:
Originally Posted by Sciencewoman
That is interesting and I had not heard of a Sir Thomas More connection...in what context did he use the word, since "sororities" as we know them now didn't exist in the early 1500s? A third possibility is that Prof. Smalley wanted to apply a term used in a past context to the Greek women's societies that were forming, or had recently formed.
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It would be a religious context, as would the typical context for
fraternity prior to the creation of collegiate fraternities. I came across it in the Oxford English Dictionary a few years back.
The online version of the OED gives this as the first definition for
sorority: "A body or company of women united for some common object, esp. for devotional purposes; †
U.S., the female section of a church congregation." I wonder if the "U.S." usage is a historical/archaic thing, since I've never heard it used that way in modern usage. For historical quotations, it gives this:
1532 T. More Confut. Barnes viii, in Wks. 761/1 This would he say for the comfort of ye whole fraternitie and sororiti in general.
1646 E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (ed. 3) 87 The Synod of New-England maketh not onely the fraternity (but, as they speak) the sorority to be the subject of the ‥ . power of the keyes.
1657 J. Watts Scribe, Pharisee 101 [The care] of the fraternity and sorority within their limits.
And it has this for the etymology:
< medieval Latin sororitas, or < Latin soror sister + -ity suffix, after fraternity. Compare obsolete French sororité (Cotgrave 1611).
And yes -- the third possibility you mention is certainly, well, a possibility.
