Etymology

sociopetal

soc·i·o·pet·al
S1O1C3I1O1P3E1T1A1L1

Today it means: Of a place, etc.: involving the arrangement of a group of people so that each person can see and interact with the others. Full definition →

First used 1957
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The story

From socio- (prefix meaning ‘society’) + -petal (suffix meaning ‘travelling towards’), coined by the English psychiatrist Humphry Osmond (1917–2004) in 1957: see the quotation.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1957 Of a place, etc.: involving the arrangement of a group of people so that each person can see and interact with the others.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.