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

Etymology

Origin of phalanstery

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

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

He saw the full- blown phalanstery coming like a comet and expected every moment.

From Brook Farm Historic and Personal Memoirs by Codman, John Thomas

Greeley had prophesied that the phalanstery, with one kitchen for forty families, instead of forty kitchens for forty families, would soon come about.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 by Hubbard, Elbert

The most important person in this little African phalanstery was unquestionably Monnica, who had taken in hand the moral and material control of the house.

From Saint Augustin by O'Sullivan, Vincent

Is the phalanstery to be prohibited from capitalizing and lending at interest?

From What is Property? by Proudhon, P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph)

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

Let us establish the rest as near their old homes as we can,—not in poor-houses or phalansteries, but on their own farms.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 by Various

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

In the hotels at Nice, phalansteries of the most polite and hypocritical worldly corruption, he had been flattered in the seclusion of his room by unexpected visits.

From The Dead Command From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan by Douglas, Frances