asocial en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /eɪˈsəʊʃəl/ (UK)
- /eɪˈsoʊʃəl/ (General-American)
Etymology
From a- + social; in the sense of “antisocial” and as a noun, appears to be a calque of German asozial / Asozialer.
Meanings
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Not social, not relating to society.
1974, Raymond Williams, Television: Technology and Cultural Form, New York: Schocken Books, 1975, Chapter 5, pp. 127-128, All media operations are in effect desocialised […] . But it is then interesting that from this wholly unhistorical and asocial base McLuhan projects certain images of society […]
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Not sociable; having minimal social connections with others; not inclined to connect with others socially.
And it’s maybe because of math’s absolute, wholly abstract Truth that so many people still view the discipline as dry or passionless and its practitioners as asocial dweebs.
2000, David Foster Wallace, “Rhetoric and the Math Melodrama”, in Both Flesh and Not, Boston: Little, Brown, published 2012:Mrs Alphen, from her deck chair, would call at him brightly, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, being so selfish and neglecting us ladies and all!” and she would gesture at the deck chair beside her, but he would only smile and scuttle away, realizing that he was asocial and a scoundrel.
1938, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 36, in The Prodigal Parents, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, page 268:In a nation which increasingly appears to prize social virtues, Howard Hughes remains not merely antisocial but grandly, brilliantly, surpassingly, asocial. He is the last private man, the dream we no longer admit.
1967, Joan Didion, “7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, New York, N.Y.: Dell, published 1968, page 72:She herself was already asocial at the age of six months and stiffened in her mother’s arms at this time, and such reactions, common in autism, she also finds inexplicable in terms of theory of mind.
1995, Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, page 291:
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(colloquial, proscribed) Antisocial.
The social worker speaks of asocial behavior. The term is familiar to the young criminal. The social worker is able to explain the causes of this asocial behavior. But the delinquent could do it too, and in the very same terms.
1977, Saul Bellow, “The Jefferson Lectures”, in It All Adds Up, New York, N.Y.: Viking, published 1994, page 130:Contrasting with the complete haphazardness with which the inmates are selected are the categories, meaningless in themselves but useful from the standpoint of organization, into which they are usually divided on their arrival. In the German camps there were criminals, politicals, asocial elements, religious offenders, and Jews, all distinguished by insignia.
1951, Hannah Arendt, “Totalitarianism in Power”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif.; New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1973, →ISBN, part 3 (Totalitarianism), page 449:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more asocial | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most asocial | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Deriveds
asocialise · asocialize · asociality · asocially
Translations (24)
ka ასოციალური (not sociable) · da asocial (not sociable) · es huraño (not sociable) · pl asocjalny (not social) · es asocial (not sociable) · ca antisocial (not sociable) · it insocievole (not sociable) · fi epäsosiaalinen (not sociable) · ca asocial (not social) · es montañero (not sociable) · it antisociale (not sociable) · pl asocjalny (not sociable) · it asociale (not social) · ka არასოციალური (not social) · pl aspołeczny (not sociable) · it asociale (not sociable) · fi asosiaalinen (not social) · pl aspołeczny (not social) · ca asocial (not sociable) · es cusumbosolo (not sociable) · fi epäsosiaalinen (not social) · hu aszociális (not sociable) · ka ასოციალური (not social) · fi ei sosiaalinen (not social)