Social vs Societal

Thank you so much for this, Porsche... "But, using a ten-cent word correctly, to reflect some subtlety of meaning, doesn't mean the speaker is trying to look smarter. It means the speaker IS smarter!"

Thank you so much for this, Lingua Sceptica... As ever, the English language evolves and moves itself forward to adapt to its own needs through the creation of a new word/term that improves on that already available.

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The greatest strength of the English language is, and has been through many centuries, it's ability to adapt and through evolving be a truly living language.

The term 'societal' may not be liked by the linguist purists but is one that has become necessary over time because of the prevalence and, hence, too broad a use of the term 'social'.

Breaking the use of the two terms down, I would describe 'societal' as being of a 'top-down' 'macro' nature with objectivity and a means to appreciating the bigger picture in its intent, whereas the more subjective and arguably, in linguistic terms, now too broadly used term 'social' is too 'bottom up' and 'micro' to be used as widely as it has been in the past within the intended context.

To proffer an example, asking the question "what will be the social impact be of this social policy" is bettered by asking "what is the societal impact of this social policy".

So, 'societal' equals the means to solve, whereas 'social' is, generally, the problem to be solved.

As ever, the English language evolves and moves itself forward to adapt to its own needs through the creation of a new word/term that improves on that already available.

Without, arbitrarily, drawing a line under this debate, as started by the student of English 1201, was he using the word 'societal' in the correct context?

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More late additions to the discussion!

I would use the term 'social' to describe any issue relating to groups of people within a society. For example, "...there are many social issues which affect the people of London".

I would use the term 'societal' when referring to the existence (or lack of) of 'a society' on the whole. For example "...this example of over exploitation of resources brings to mind the societal collapse of the Mayans".

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I'm from Mexico. The first time I heard that word from a professor in a master's degree seminar (back in 2004), I asked him for an explanation. What he told me was that the adjective "societal" is formed for the conjuntion of 'society' and 'total' in order to mean the society as a whole, as a system, relating to the structure, organization, or functioning of society, what seems to have certain logic.

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I was also searching for the difference between these words.. I cam up with the finding that.. if you say "social infection ", it might sound like an infection that is social.. whereas.. if you say "societal infection", it sounds like an infection to the society.
:-)

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"Societal" is used by those who think they are smart and educated, which may or may not be a bad thing.
I ain't knocking academia.
Hey, I only play didgeridoos, so what do I know?

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Hm, interesting discussion, although after erading it I'm still not sure whether to use 'social' or 'societal' as a translation of the Dutch 'maatschappelijk' in a letter of reference... 'Social' sounds too general, 'societal' too specific ub the context I am trying to find the right word for.

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I just want to thank the student whose writing led me to this discussion. I'm enlightened and will hopefully be a little bit more humble in future, and slower to assume my usage is standard, received, official etc. (Just for the record - marking a college paper in Jamaica.)

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I'm a few years late on getting into this conversation, but I wonder if the original poster's professor was from the U.K. too? In my first year of teaching in higher education in the U.S. I'd correct "societal" to "social" in papers because I thought it was just a common mistake (of which there are plenty in student writing, after all). Finally I saw it so much I concluded that it was accepted usage, right or not, and stopped correcting it. Then today, seven years on, I saw it in the New York Times and had to admit that it might even be official usage - hence my Google search to try and work out why I'd never come across it in the U.K.
I can't find much on it, but it was interesting to read the various comments above. I'd note that just because it appears in U.K. dictionaries doesn't mean it's in normal usage in British English. I certainly never saw it in a newspaper or heard it on the radio - though that's not to say that there aren't some academic fields in which it gets used.

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Sociology was only really taking off around 1900. That's probably why 'societal' appears around the same time. Maybe that's why 'societal' also more specifically relates to society in a broad sense. I don't appreciate the comments that any use of the word implies trying to fake intelligence or having a poor grasp of the English language. Thanks Porsche.

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Social means a lot of things, societal from what I see is more limited in its definition. It seems that societal's arrival might be correlated with the popularity of Marxism since it was created circa 1900. Societal is not redundant since it can be used for accuracy and precision. The problem with using societal is that it is perceived by some to be a register change from social, although it is not. Also, if you are in Sociology class you can throw your English dictionaries out the window for this problem and ask for clarification with your instructor or buy a Sociology dictionary, because in this case it could just be a jargon issue.

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I don't know why so many people have not heard the word 'societal' before, maybe because there are a lot of terms with 'social' in it, for instance, 'social networking'.

'societal' is definitely a word, and I've always heard it. And, most importantly, yes, if you look in the dictionary, you'll definitely find it.

I think porsche is right in saying that social is a more broad-meaning word. And societal is directly related to a society, or the logistics or infrastructure of it. Like, the societal affluence.. it's more like the economics of something.

I think Rebecca is pretty spot-on, as well.

Remember, words go beyond lexical meaning. Since you were taking an English course, that could have had an effect. Words give you a certain picture in your head. If you use social instead of societal, that definitely changes so much. Some words have the exact same meaning. In this case, you would only change up the words for literary purposes. But even in different meanings, there is always a literary use for the selection of words, and that can include having a "formal" way of saying things.

I disagree, spammer katrinka. Maybe that is usually the case, but that is an overgeneralisation, and it is not a rule or even a norm in any way.

@Jon, settle down there. Besides your British pride and whatnot, I don't know how old you are, but 1900 - whether that is correct - is a darn long time ago.

Although I would agree that a lot of US Americans are taught a "poor" version of English in some regards, the people who adopted 'societal' did not have a poor understanding at all. I am not certain, but I'm pretty sure that is was originally a sociological term (whoever invented that was a sociologist). I don't think it matters whether the sociologist is from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, or some other European country and he spoke English.

Michael, no one is saying it is more superior, don't assume such things!

And, Jon, I feel that your "Americans seem to reject English words which have too many uses" theory doesn't explain your 'obliged' example, but thanks for that. I've actually never thought about that. I hope you didn't think I was trying to side with the US Americans; my stance is not like that at all.. I'm not even US American!

Ok, I pretty much only read comments up to Michael, and I'm done, this is quite long!

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In a 2010 document -COM(2010)608 - the European Commission makes a distinction:
"In order to strengthen corporate governance and corporate social - and even societal - responsibility, attention will have to be focussed on ... ..."
Whoever wrote that seems to see social responsibility as being towards member of society and societal responsibilit as being towards society.

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I just used societal in an article where I did not want to use social. The reason was because I wanted to refer to the idea of objective progress in society, and not to a subjective or shared idea motivating that progress, i.e. social progress.

Societal, in my view, takes the politics out of it, which is probably why it is used by social scientists and anthropolgists.

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I always use societal because it makes more sense to me. Maybe because I used social in a different context as a kid. Writing papers in political science, I feel it better describes the point when I write about societal differences. Sorry if I offended anyone. ^_^

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Porsche:
I'm still not convinced that societal is better than social. In the example you cited, I might have referred to the fraternity's community activities being popular with the college. I do agree that there are a number of redundant words that are useful, particularly when writing a piece requiring synonyms to avoid overuse of the same word.

I do enjoy these discussions, regardless of the viewpoints expressed. It's good to know that in this truncated, twittering, technocracy, there are still those who try to say what they mean, and mean what they say!

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Merriam-Webster lists 'emplace' as a back-formation of 'emplacement', and dates it to 1865 – perhaps a Civil War coinage. 'Emplacement' has a military connotation: a prepared position for weapons or military equipment; M-W dates it to 1802. The use of 'emplacement' in reference to IEDs is A-OK, but unless the books are incendiary its use in a book-bag context is inappropriate.

'Utilize' means "to make use of : turn to practical use or account" (Merriam-Webster). It is inappropriate to ask to 'utilize the latrine' unless the intent is to find a new use for it. (Don't ask, don't tell.)

'Societal' is a perfectly good word, but it is best confined to the social sciences, as a rule. I'm having a hard time imagining how a cadet would utilize it.

I agree with Rob that the use of '10-cent words' to impress is ill-advised. The military has always had its own strain of sesquipedalian lingo. But in the trenches, you can be sure that they revert to "clear, clean, austere English." (Well, maybe not 'clean'.)

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It also drives me crazy that I can't fix the typo ("It's drives me crazy" should be "It drives me crazy") in the message I just posted.

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What an interesting discussion!

I am a history professor at a service academy. I dislike "societal" because it is one of several 10-cent words that people use in failed attempts to make themselves sound more intelligent. "Utilize" (instead of "use") and "emplace" (instead of "place") are other examples. Cadets will ask to "utilize the latrine" instead of just using it. "Emplace" came into the language with Iraqis "emplacing" IEDs on the sides of roads, but now cadets will "emplace" a book into a bookbag. It's drives me crazy.

What I try to pound into my students' heads is that clear, clean, austere English works best. Why use a fancy word when a regular one works just fine?

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Jon:
Thank you so much for your elucidation on this distinction. Personally, I cringe when I hear the word societal, and I'm an American! I have never known of an instance where the use of societal was superior to, or more specific than, the word social.

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Baldrige 2009 1.2 Governance and Societal Responsibilities:
Baldrige 2007 1.2 Governance and Social Responsibilities:
societal was not found in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
social was found in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary at the entries listed below.
social adjective GOING OUT
social adjective SOCIETY
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?ad=cdo&... =>14 words
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?ad=cdo&... =>2 words

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I am from the UK and the word societal is not used here. I have looked it up and societal only came into existence around 1900. I think this is another case of Americans with a poor grasp of the English language making up redundant words. I have read articles by American professors who use the word! It is poor English, but has come into use through repetition. Americans seem to reject English words which have too many uses. Maybe it seems strange to Americans that a word could relate both to ones immediate social activities as well as the interaction of human beings in wider society ... but social covers both of these which means 'societal' is a redundant word. By the way the same applies to the word 'obliged' which Americans always seem to replace with 'obligated' - another redundant word made up by Americans. Americans might say “I have to go to work, I am ‘obligated’ to go there”. All other English speakers (unless taught by an American) would say “I have to go to work, I am obliged to go there”. Maybe obliged sounds too Southern or too Negro (‘much obliged sir’) for professors to use? Maybe social doesn’t sound academic enough?

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historians use social; anthropology and sociology people use societal

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historians use social; anthropology and sociology people use societal

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historians use social; anthropology and sociology people use societal

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Hello,

I have been wondering about this too. I swear I haven't heard the word "societal" for most of my life but nowadays I hear it ALL THE TIME and I wonder if it is just people trying aspiring to sophistication . . .

Does anyone know a clever and easy way to check word usage over time? Some online corpus or a tool in one of the news sites? It would be neat to see a trend line . . .

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The odds are, your professor is a purist and sees the word "societal" as jargon or a corruption of the word "social." Many feel the same way about nominalizations (ironically like "nominalization") or buzz-words like "truthiness." I think the lesson your professor is trying to teach is to use simple language and not get lost in what could potentially become a cloud of PC-isms.

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I agree with most of what has been said. Societal is far more seldom used than social and so it may sound like a buzz word. On the other hand, I do think that both have appropriate uses in different situations, especially if you are writing within the social sciences where semantic distinctions between words like social and societal may be subtle but important. I personally studied anthropology in college, so one of the things that I tried to learn to do was to be able to recognize the difference between words like social and societal (or simple and simplistic, or other similar pairs) and to me, Rebecca looks right on. Social refers to something that has to do with society, somthing societal has to do with the system of society itself. I don't know if that is a great way to articulate it. Maybe Rebecca's words were better. But that's my understanding.

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I wonder whether both words have more subtle meanings? "Social" pertains to human relationships and "societal" means having to do with society as a big concept?

Seems as if the two words are both usable.Your professor may have some visceral reaction to elevated language.

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societal isn't a word. i don't remember it being used ten years ago. i certainly don't remember it being used this much even five years.

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Oops... premature submission.

Anyway, Social & Societal are not synonyms in all cases so context could have everything to do with it. Do you have examples?

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Social & Societal are not synonyms

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