gesellschaft
[German guh-zel-shahft]
- an association of individuals for common goals, as for entertainment, intellectual, or cultural purposes or for business reasons.
- Sociology. a society or group characterized chiefly by formal organization, impersonal relations, the absence of generally held or binding norms, and a detachment from traditional and sentimental concerns, and often tending to be rationalistic and secular in outlook.
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Compare gemeinschaft.
Origin of gesellschaft
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gesellschaft
Historical Examples
In the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna.
The Life of Johannes Brahms (Vol 1 of 2)Florence May
In the Mitteilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1899, Heft.
Archology and the BibleGeorge A. Barton
Mittheilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1907, p. 23.
Archology and the BibleGeorge A. Barton
Schindler somewhere censures the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde for its long delay in making Beethoven an honorary member.
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II (of 3)Alexander Wheelock Thayer
So Pohl, who wrote a history of the Gesellschaft, informed Thayer in a note.
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III (of 3)Alexander Wheelock Thayer
gesellschaft
- (often capital) a social group held together by practical concerns, formal and impersonal relationships, etcCompare gemeinschaft
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Word Origin
German, literally: society
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for gesellschaft
n.
1887, "social relationship based on duty to society or an organization," from German Gesellschaft, from geselle "companion" + -schaft "-ship."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper