different between bunch vs society

English

Etymology

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.

Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunk?, *bunkô, *bung? (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?en??-, *b?éng??us (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búož? (“knob”), Ancient Greek ????? (pakhús, “thick”), Sanskrit ??? (bahú, “thick; much”)).

Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Noun

bunch (plural bunches)

1. A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
2. (cycling) The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
3. An informal body of friends.

   • “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, […], the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!"

4. (US, informal) A considerable amount.

5. (informal) An unmentioned amount; a number.

6. (forestry) A group of logs tied together for skidding.
7. (geology, mining) An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
   • 1874, David Page, Economic Geology: Or, Geology in Its Relations to the Arts and Manufactures

     The ore may be disseminated throughout the matrix in minute particles, as gold in quartz; in parallel threads, strings, and plates, as with copper; in irregular pockets or bunches

8. (textiles) The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.
9. An unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.

10. A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.

Synonyms

• (group of similar things): cluster, group
• (informal body of friends): pack, group, gang, circle
• (unusual concentration of ore): ore pocket, pocket, pocket of ore, kidney, nest, nest of ore, ore bunch, bunch of ore

Derived terms

• buncha (bunch of)

Translations

Verb

bunch (third-person singular simple present bunches, present participle bunching, simple past and past participle bunched)

1. (transitive) To gather into a bunch.
2. (transitive) To gather fabric into folds.
3. (intransitive) To form a bunch.
4. (intransitive) To be gathered together in folds
5. (intransitive) To protrude or swell
   • 1728, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England

     Bunching out into a large round knob at one end.

Synonyms

• (form a bunch): cluster, group

Derived terms

• bunch up

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• soc. (abbreviation)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French societé , from Latin societ?s, societ?tem (“fellowship, association, alliance, union, community”), from socius (“associated, allied; partner, companion, ally”), from Proto-Indo-European *sok?-yo- (“companion”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek?- (“to follow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??sa?.?.ti/

Noun

society (countable and uncountable, plural societies)

1. (countable) A long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms.
2. (countable) A group of people who meet from time to time to engage in a common interest; an association or organization.

   • At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

3. (countable) The sum total of all voluntary interrelations between individuals.
4. (uncountable) The people of one’s country or community taken as a whole.
5. (uncountable) High society.
6. (countable, law) A number of people joined by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act toward a common goal.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• "society" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 291.