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What is a "Fraternity"?
Fraternities and sororities were established to further the social, scholastic and professional interests of its members. They are mainly associated with colleges and universities. Most fraternities and sororities adopt Greek letters to represent their organization, and as a result they are often referred to as Greek letter societies, or simply Greek organizations.
"Fraternity" vs. "Sorority"
The word fraternity comes from the Latin word "frater" meaning brother. The word fraternity is often used to described not only organizations comprised of men, but also women. Originally, both groups were called fraternities because that was the only word that existed during the 1800's to describe the type of organization they were. This may be due to the fact that most of these organizations were originally started by men.
In 1882, the Gamma Phi Beta women at Syracuse University began to call themselves a sorority. This was by the suggestion of their advisor who was a Professor of Latin and thought the word suited them better. The word sorority comes from the Latin word "soror" meaning sister.
However by this point, many women's organizations had already been officially and legally incorporated and could not change their name. Today, many of the older "sororities" are referred to by that name, but may have the word fraternity in their official title.
© 2006 Inter Greek
Council - IGC
State University of New York at Geneseo
Originally created by Stephanie Brown & Maintained by Tim Szczerba and Ryan
Lang '07
Redesigned by Sunny Lecce '08
