sodality

From the French sodalité or its etymon, the Latin sodālitās, from sodālis (“companion”).

• IPA^(key): /səʊˈdælɪti/

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sodality (plural sodalities)

1. A fraternity, a society or association.
   • 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:

     There’d even evolved somehow a kind of sodality or fan club that sat around, read from her books and discussed her Theory.

2. Companionship.
   • 1968, Anthony Burgess, Enderby Outside:

     Those would, he thought, be expatriate writers. He was, of course, one of those himself now, but he was indifferent to the duties and pleasures of sodality.

3. (Christianity) Spiritual communion with a divine being, a fellowship
   • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, p. 98:

     On the wall of his bedroom hung an illuminated scroll, the certificate of his prefecture in the college of the sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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