sociology

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”).

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/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

sociology (plural sociologies)

1. 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

• cow sociology
• historical sociology
• mathematical sociology
• sociologist

 

Translations

study of society, human social interactions, etc.

• Afrikaans: sosiologie
• Albanian: sociologji (sq) f
• Arabic: عِلْم الْمُجْتَمَع‎ m (ʕilm al-mujtamaʕ)
• Armenian: սոցիոլոգիա (hy) (socʿiologia), հասարակագիտություն (hy) (hasarakagitutʿyun)
• Assamese: সমাজ বিজ্ঞান (xomaz biggan)
• Azerbaijani:

  Roman: ictimaiyyat, sosiologiya

  Abjad: اجتماعيات‎ (ijtimāeiāt)

• Basque: soziologia
• Belarusian: сацыяло́гія f (sacyjalóhija), сацыялёгія f (sacyjaljóhija), грамадазна́ўства n (hramadaznáŭstva)
• Bengali: সমাজবিজ্ঞান (bn) (śomajbiggên)
• Bulgarian: социоло́гия (bg) f (sociológija)
• Burmese: လူမှုဗေဒ (luhmu.beda.)
• Catalan: sociologia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 社會學／社会学 (se⁵ wui^6-2 hok⁶)

  Mandarin: 社會學／社会学 (zh) (shèhuìxué)

• Czech: sociologie (cs) f
• Danish: sociologi (da) c
• Dutch: sociologie (nl) f
• Esperanto: sociologio
• Estonian: sotsioloogia
• Faroese: samfelagsfrøði (fo) f, sosiologi (fo)
• Finnish: sosiologia (fi)
• French: sociologie (fr) f
• Galician: socioloxía (gl) f
• Georgian: სოციოლოგია (sociologia)
• German: Soziologie (de) f, Gesellschaftskunde f
• Greek: κοινωνιολογία (el) f (koinoniología)
• Gujarati: સમાજશાસ્ત્ર (samājśāstra)
• Hebrew: סוֹצִיוֹלוֹגִיָה‎ (he) f (sotsyológya)
• Hindi: समाजशास्त्र (hi) m (samājśāstra)
• Hungarian: szociológia (hu)
• Icelandic: félagsfræði f
• Ido: sociologio (io)
• Indonesian: sosiologi (id)
• Irish: socheolaíocht f
• Italian: sociologia (it) f
• Japanese: 社会学 (ja) (しゃかいがく, shakaigaku)
• Kannada: ಸಮಾಜಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ (kn) (samājaśāstra)
• Kazakh: әлеуметтану (äleumettanu)
• Khmer: សង្គមវិទ្យា (sɑngkum vityiə), សិក្សាសង្គម (səksaa sɑngkum)
• Korean: 사회학(社會學) (ko) (sahoehak)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: civaknasî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: социология (ky) (sotsiologiya)
• Lao: ສັງຄົມສາດ (lo) (sang khom sāt), ສັງຄົມວິທະຍາ (sang khom wi tha nyā)
• Latin: sociologia f
• Latvian: socioloģija f
• Lithuanian: sociologija (lt) f
• Macedonian: социологија f (sociologija)
• Malay: sosiologi (ms)
• Malayalam: സമൂഹശാസ്ത്രം (samūhaśāstraṁ)
• Maltese: soċjoloġija
• Maori: mātauranga hapori
• Marathi: समाजशास्त्र (samājśāstra)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: социологи (sociologi)

• Nepali: समाजशास्त्र (samājaśāstra)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sosiologi m

  Nynorsk: sosiologi m

• Occitan: sociologia f
• Pashto: ټولنپوهنه‎ (ps) f (ṭolәnpohәna), سوسيولوژي‎ (ps) f (sosioloži), سوسيالوجي‎ f (sosiāloji)
• Persian: جامِعِه‌شِناسی‎ (fa) (jâme'e-šenâsi)
• Polish: socjologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: sociologia (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਸਮਾਜ ਸ਼ਾਸਤਰ (pa) (samāj śāstar)
• Romanian: sociologie (ro) f
• Russian: социоло́гия (ru) f (sociológija), обществове́дение (ru) n (obščestvovédenije)
• Scottish Gaelic: eòlas-comainn m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: социоло̀гија f

  Roman: sociològija (sh) f

• Slovak: sociológia f
• Slovene: sociologija (sl) f
• Spanish: sociología (es) f
• Swahili: sosholojia
• Swedish: sociologi (sv)
• Tagalog: sosyolohiya
• Tajik: ҷамъиятшиносӣ (tg) (jamʾiyatšinosī), сотсиология (tg) (sotsiologiya), ҷомеашиносӣ (tg) (jomeašinosī)
• Tamil: சமூகவியல் (ta) (camūkaviyal)
• Tatar: социология (sotsioloğiya)
• Telugu: సామాజిక శాస్త్రం (sāmājika śāstraṁ)
• Thai: สังคมวิทยา (sǎng-kom-wít-tá-yaa)
• Turkish: sosyoloji (tr)
• Turkmen: sosiologiýa
• Ukrainian: соціоло́гія (uk) f (sociolóhija), суспільствозна́вство n (suspilʹstvoznávstvo)
• Urdu: عِمْرانِیّات‎ ('imrāniyyāt), سَماجِیات‎ (samājiyāt)
• Uyghur: جەمئىيەتشۇناسلىق‎ (jem'iyetshunasliq)
• Uzbek: sotsiologiya (uz)
• Vietnamese: xã hội học (vi) (社會學)
• Welsh: cymdeithaseg m
• West Frisian: sosjology
• Yiddish: סאָציאָלאָגיע‎ f (sotsyologye)

See also

• anthropology
• psychology

Further reading

• "sociology" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 295.