Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SO'BER-NESS, n.

1. Freedom from intoxication; temperance.
2. Gravity; seriousness.
3. Freedom from heat and passion; calmness; coolness. The soberness of Virgil might have shown him the difference. – Dryden.

SO-BRI'E-TY, n. [Fr. sobrieté; L. sobrietas, from sobrius.]

1. Habitual soberness or temperance in the use of spiritous liquors; as when we say, a man of sobriety. – Hooker. Taylor.
2. Freedom from intoxication. Public sobriety is a relative duty. – Blackstone.
3. Habitual freedom from enthusiasm, inordinate passion or overheated imagination; calmness; coolness; as, the sobriety of riper years; the sobriety of age. – Dryden.
4. Seriousness; gravity without sadness or melancholy. Mirth makes them not mad, / Nor sobriety sad. – Denham.

SO-BRI-QUET, n. [so'breca. Fr.]

A nickname.

SOC, n. [Sax. soc, from socan, secan, to seek, to follow, L. sequor.]

1. Properly, the sequela, secta or suit, or the body of suitors; hence, the power or privilege of holding a court in a district, as in a manor; jurisdiction of causes, and the limits of that jurisdiction. – English Law. Wilkins. Lye.
2. Liberty or privilege of tenants excused from customary burdens. – Cowel.
3. An exclusive privilege claimed by millers of grinding all the corn need within the manor or township in which the mill stands. – Grose.

SOC'AGE, n. [from soc, supra, a privilege.]

In English law, a tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the render was uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated socage; as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent. – Blackstone. Socage is of two kinds; free socage, where the services are not only certain, but honorable; and villein socage, where the services, though certain, are of a baser nature. – Blackstone.

SOC'A-GER, n.

A tenant by socage; a socman.

SO'-CALL-ED, a.

So named.

SO-CIA-BIL'I-TY, n. [Fr. sociabilité.]

Sociableness; disposition to associate and converse with others; or the practice of familiar converse.

SO'CIA-BLE, a. [Fr. sociable; L. sociabilis, from socius, a companion, probably from sequor, to follow. See Seek.]

1. That may be conjoined; fit to be united in one body or company; as, sociable parts united in one body. – Hooker.
2. Ready or disposed to unite in a general interest. To make man mild, and sociable to man. – Addison.
3. Ready and inclined to join in company or society; or frequently meeting for conversation; as, sociable neighbors.
4. Inclined to converse when in company; disposed to freedom in conversation; opposed to reserved and taciturn.
5. Free in conversation; conversing much or familiarly. The guests were very sociable.

SO'CIA-BLE-NESS, n.

Disposition to associate; inclination to company and converse; or actual frequent union in society or free converse. This word may signify either the disposition to associate, or the disposition to enter into familiar conversation, or the actual practice of associating and conversing.

SO'CIA-BLY, adv.

In a sociable manner; with free intercourse; convertibly; familiarly; as a companion.

SO'CIAL, a. [L. socialis, from socius, companion.]

1. Pertaining to society; relating to men living in society, or to the public as an aggregate body; as, social interests or concerns; social pleasures; social benefits; social happiness; social duties. True self-love and social are the same. – Pope.
2. Ready or disposed to mix in friendly converse; companionable. Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove / Thy martial spirit or thy social love. – Pope.
3. Consisting in union or mutual converse. – Milton.
4. Disposed to unite in society. Man is a social being.

SO'CIAL-ISM, n.

A social state in which there is a community of property among all the citizens – a new term for agrarianism. [See Communism, in the Addenda.]

SO'CIAL-IST, n.

One who advocates a community of property among all the citizens of a state.

SO-CI-AL'I-TY, n.

Socialness; the quality of being social. – Sterne.

SO'CIAL-LY, adv.

In a social manner or way.

SO'CIAL-NESS, n.

The duality of being social.

SO-CI'E-TY, n. [Fr. société; Sp. sociedad; It. società; L. societas, from socius, a companion. See Sociable.]

1. The union of a number of rational beings; or a number of persons united, either for a temporary or permanent purpose. Thus the inhabitants of a state or of a city constitute a society, having common interests; and hence it is called a community. In a more enlarged sense, the whole race or family of man is a society, and called human society. The true and natural foundations of society, are the wants and fears of individuals. – Blackstone.
2. Any number of persons associated for a particular purpose, whether incorporated by law, or only united by articles of agreement; a fraternity. Thus we have Bible societies, missionary societies, and charitable societies for various objects; societies of mechanics, and learned societies; societies for encouraging arts, &c.
3. Company; a temporary association of persons for profit or pleasure. In this sense, company is more generally used.
4. Company; fellowship. We frequent the society of those we love and esteem.
5. Partnership; fellowship; union on equal terms. Among unequals what society can sort? – Milton. Heaven's greatness no society can bear. – Dryden.
6. Persons living in the same neighborhood, who frequently meet in company and have fellowship. Literary society renders a place interesting and agreeable.
7. In Connecticut, a number of families united and incorporated for the purpose of supporting public worship, is called an ecclesiastical society. This is a parish, except that it has not territorial limits. In Massachusetts, such an incorporated society is usually called a parish, though consisting of persons only, without regard to territory.

SO-CIN'I-AN, a. [from Socinus, a native of Sienna, in Tuscany, the founder of the sect of Socinians in the 16th century.]

Pertaining to Socinus, or his religious creed.

SO-CIN'I-AN, n.

One of the followers of Socinus. – Encyc.

SO-CIN'I-AN-ISM, n.

The tenets or doctrines of Socinus who held Christ to have been a mere man inspired, denied his divinity and atonement, and the doctrine of original depravity. Encyc.

SOCK, n. [Sax. socc; L. soccus; Sw. socka; G. socke; D. zok; Dan. sok; Fr. socque; It. socco; Sp. zoco, zueco, a wooden shoe, a plinth, whence zocalo, Fr. socle. Qu. L. sicco, to dry, Gr. σακκος, a bag.]

1. The shoe of the ancient actors of comedy. Hence the word is used for comedy, and opposed to buskin or tragedy. Great Fletcher never treads in buskin here, / Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear. – Dryden.
2. A garment for the foot, like the foot of a stocking.
3. A plowshare. – Ed. Encyc.

SOCK'ET, n. [Ir. soicead.]

1. The little hollow tube or place in which a candle is fixed in the candlestick. And in the sockets oily bubbles dance. – Dryden.
2. Any hollow thing or place which receives and hold something else; as, the sockets of the teeth or of the eyes. His eyeballs in their hollow sockets sink. – Dryden. Gomphosis is the connection of a tooth to its socket. – Wiseman.

SOCK'ET-CHIS-EL, n.

A chisel made with a socket; stranger sort of chisel. – Moxon.

SOCK'ET-POLE, n.

A pole armed with an iron-socket and used to propel boats, &c.