social [LME] Latin socius ‘companion’ is the base of social and society [M16th]; while associate [LME] comes from closely related associare ‘to unite’. Socialism [E19] came into English modelled on socialist [L18th], originally used to mean someone who lives in a civilized society. Its political use was popularized by the work of the philanthropist Robert Owen (1771–1858), one of the founders of the cooperative movement.