Quote:
Originally Posted by ASAlamb
I've read that the word sorority didn't even exist until Gamma Phi Beta was founded... am I right in thinking she was ignorant/full of crap?
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Yes, you are right in thinking that, but . . .
. . . meaning absolutely no disrespect to Gamma Phi Beta or Dr. Brown, the word "sorority" did exist before Gamma Phi Beta. Sir Thomas More used it in his writings around 1530. Granted, it was never as common a word as "fraternity" (which had a long use among religious communities prior to its use for what we think of as fraternities), but it when he suggested it in the 1870s for Gamma Phi Beta, Dr. Brown could have been drawing on a knowledge of More's writings. Of course, he also could have been completely unaware of the previous use of the word and simply did what someone before him had done -- gone back to the Latin
sororitas and anglicized it in a manner similar to
fraternitas.
