phalanstery

American  

[fal-uhn-ster-ee] / ˈfæl ənˌstɛr i /

noun

• phalansteries
  plural

1. (in Fourierism)

   1. the buildings occupied by a phalanx.

   2. the community itself.

2. any similar association, or the buildings they occupy.

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phalanstery British  

/ ˈfælənstərɪ, -strɪ /

noun

1. 1. buildings occupied by a phalanx

   2. a community represented by a phalanx

2. any similar association or the buildings occupied by such an association

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• phalansteries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of phalanstery

1840–50; < French phalanstère, blend of phalange phalanx and monastère monastery

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Explanation

A phalanstery is a group of people living in a communal society, and it's also the name of a building where they live. A specific kind of utopian community, the phalanstery was first imagined by French philosopher Charles Fourier in the early 1800s. The French term, phalanstère, comes from phalanx, an ancient Greek military group, and monastery. The phalansteries, which later influenced buildings by architect Le Corbusier, were designed with communal kitchens, quiet rooms, libraries, and areas for doing carpentry, metal forging, and more. Work done here was intended to make the phalanstery self-sufficient.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

phalanstery phalansteries

Life in the big, three-story phalanstery was rigorous and simple, but intellectually stimulating.

From Time Magazine Archive

The phalanstery was built in the middle of the tract, and was merely a glorified apartment house.

From Socialism and Democracy in Europe by Samuel P. Orth

In the experiences of Eugene Nus’s circle, we find the language of Fourier discoursing about the phalanstery, about racial solidarity, and socialistic religion.

From The Arena Volume 4, No. 20, July, 1891 by B. O. (Benjamin Orange) Flower

The phalanstery and the familystery do not take this into account, or else they endeavour to supply this need by artificial groupings.

From The Conquest of Bread by Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin, Prince

In general, the houses were of enormous length, after the fashion of a St. Simonian phalanstery, or of a `miners' row' in Lanarkshire.

From A Vanished Arcadia: being some account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607-1767 by R. B. (Robert Bontine) Cunninghame Graham

With their socialist communities, workshops and phalansteries, they hoped to convert the world by good example.

From Time Magazine Archive

You can't look without dread at the photos and engravings of panopticons, meeting houses, commune buildings, phalansteries and other social-idealist architecture in the 19th century stretch of this show.

From Time Magazine Archive

Now, as to your phalansteries and women's clubs and sitz-baths, why that's all flummery to me.

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 27, June, 1873 by Various

Gentlemen and scholars, generally at the South, would as soon be caught studying or practicing the black art, as in reading Owen or Fourier, or in building phalansteries.

From Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters by George Fitzhugh

By levelling fortunes, that section of the Code which regulates testamentary bequests, has produced these huge stone phalansteries, in which thirty families are often lodged, returning a rental of a hundred thousand francs a year.

From The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honoré de Balzac

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