Socialism
Etymology
From Latin socius, “companion, ally,” via French socialisme, which appeared in the 1830s among reformers responding to industrial capitalism. The root idea is the “social” — organizing the economy around the group rather than the isolated individual. The word has since covered a wide spectrum, from revolutionary movements to gradual, election-based welfare states, and its precise meaning is contested among those who claim it.
noun · /SOH-shuh-liz-um/
A family of ideologies favoring collective or public control over major means of production and a more equal distribution of resources.
What it names
A name for the broad project of subordinating market outcomes to social goals — spanning everything from full state ownership to democratic welfare reform.
Example
Commentators noted that “socialism” in one country meant public healthcare and in another meant state ownership of nearly everything.
Related idea
Communism is often treated as socialism’s more radical endpoint — classless and stateless in theory — while many socialists work entirely within democratic and market institutions.