Faternity (was: war and death are in my hand)

At 10:41 pm -0400 14/6/01, John Cowan wrote:
>Nik Taylor scripsit:
>
>> Fraternity also sounds odd to me.  Isn't it normally translated
>> "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood"?
>
>Um, no.
Nor this side of the pond either, where I've heard only: "Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity" - at least, when it's not quoted in French, as it
usually is.

'Fraternity' doesn't sound odd; as we also have the verb "to fraternize"
and the adjective "fraternal" in fairly common use.

Altho dictionaries give "sorority", I've never met it used except of US
women's academic societies; my dictionary also gives adjectives "sororal"
or "sororial" = 'sisterly' - but I never heard them used and can't ever
recall seeing them written.  My dictionary even gives "sororise" or
"sororize" = 'to associate in a sisterly way'!

I've certainly come across 'fraternize' used indifferently whether the
subject of the verb is male, female or, indeed, mixed male & female.  It
seems women can fraternize with others just as well as men.  So can men
'sororize'?  What is the difference between 'fraternize' and 'sororize'?

Ray.


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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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