社会

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 社会 – see 社會 (“society; community; class; etc.”). (This term is the simplified form of 社會).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

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Japanese

Etymology

Kanji in this term
社	会
しゃ Grade: 2	かい Grade: 2
on'yomi

Alternative spelling
社會 (kyūjitai)

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Chinese 社會 (dzyæX hwajH, “religious public gathering”)

Noun

1. society
   • 1910, 森鴎外, 鴎外漁史とは誰ぞ:

     人(ひと)は社会(しゃかい)を成(な)す動物(どうぶつ)だ。

     Hito wa shakai o nasu dōbutsu da.

     Man is an animal that builds societies / Man is a social animal.

2. class, world of a certain group
   • 1904, 河口慧海, チベット旅行記:

     これらは中等以下(ちゅうとういか)の社会(しゃかい)の人(ひと)に多(おお)い。

     Kore-ra wa chūtō ika no shakai no hito ni ōi.

     These are very common among people from the middle and lower classes.

   • 1929, 平林初之輔, 昭和四年の文壇の概観:

     ちょうどそれは金融寡頭政治(きんゆうかとうせいじ)の社会(しゃかい)とよく似(に)ている。

     Chōdo sore wa kin'yū katōseiji no shakai to yoku nite iru.

     It looks exactly like a world of financial oligarchs.

Derived terms

• 社会学(しゃかいがく) (shakaigaku): sociology
• 社会的(しゃかいてき) (shakaiteki): social
• 社会派(しゃかいは) (shakaiha): social activist

• 社会人(しゃかいじん) (shakaijin): working adult
• 社会秩序(しゃかいちつじょ) (shakai chitsujo): social order

Anagrams

• 会社(かいしゃ) (kaisha, “company”)

Descendants

• Chinese: 社會／社会 (shèhuì)
• Korean: 사회 (sahoe)
• Vietnamese: xã hội