SOCIAL So"cial, a. Etym: [L. socialis, from socius a companion; akin to sequi to follow: cf. F. social. See Sue to follow.]
1. Of or pertaining to society; relating to men living in society, or to the public as an aggregate body; as, social interest or concerns; social pleasure; social benefits; social happiness; social duties. "Social phenomena." J. S. Mill.
2. Ready or disposed to mix in friendly converse; companionable; sociable; as, a social person.
3. Consisting in union or mutual intercourse. Best with thyself accompanied, seek'st not Social communication. Milton.
4. (Bot.)
Defn: Naturally growing in groups or masses; — said of many individual plants of the same species.
5. (Zoöl.) (a) Living in communities consisting of males, females, and neuters, as do ants and most bees. (b) Forming compound groups or colonies by budding from basal processes or stolons; as, the social ascidians. Social science, the science of all that relates to the social condition, the relations and institutions which are involved in man's existence and his well- being as a member of an organized community; sociology. It concerns itself with questions of the public health, education, labor, punishment of crime, reformation of criminals, and the like. — Social whale (Zoöl.), the blackfish. — The social evil, prostitution.
Syn. — Sociable; companionable; conversible; friendly; familiar; communicative; convival; festive.
SOCIALISM
So"cial*ism, n. Etym: [Cf. F. socialisme.]
Defn: A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor. In popular usage, the term is often employed to indicate any lawless, revolutionary social scheme. See Communism, Fourierism, Saint-Simonianism, forms of socialism. [Socialism] was first applied in England to Owen's theory of social reconstruction, and in France to those also of St. Simon and Fourier . . . The word, however, is used with a great variety of meaning, . . . even by economists and learned critics. The general tendency is to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social reform which disturbs the present system of private property . . . The tendency of the present socialism is more and more to ally itself with the most advanced democracy. Encyc. Brit. We certainly want a true history of socialism, meaning by that a history of every systematic attempt to provide a new social existence for the mass of the workers. F. Harrison.