The word civilization (or civilisation) has a variety of meanings related to human society. The word "civilization" comes from the Latin word for townsman or citizen, civis, and its adjectival form, civilis. To be "civilized" essentially meant being a townsman, governed by the constitution and legal statutes of that community. Roman civil law was gathered together into a consolidated body of the “Corpus Juris Civilis” in the 6th Century for Emperor Justinian (483-565 CE). Justinian's code was rediscovered and used by law professors at the first University established in Western Europe, at Bologna in the 11th century. From 1388 the word “civil” appeared in English, while “civilization” as a “law which makes a criminal process civil”, appeared in 1704, closely followed in 1722 with “civilization” - meaning the opposite of “barbarity” and coming probably from the French language.

Senses of the word

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Literal and technical definitions

By the most minimal, literal definition, a civilization is a complex society. Technically, anthropologists distinguish civilizations in which many of the people live in cities and get their food from agriculture, from band and tribal societies in which people live in small settlements or nomadic groups and subsist by foraging, hunting, or working small horticultural gardens. When used in this sense, civilization is an exclusive term, applied to some human groups and not others.

Broader sense

In a broader sense, civilization often can refer to any distinct society, whether complex and city dwelling, or simple and tribal. This sense is often perceived as less exclusive and ethnocentric, or alternatively less useful and meaningful, than the first. In this sense, civilization is nearly synonymous with culture.

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i live way too far from civilization to be forgetting stuff like i do... smh
akeemscott (Akeem Scott) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:40:18 -0000
i live way too far from civilization to be forgetting stuff like i do... smh
@hubcomics It really, really does. But then it's showing it at what I think we will later recall as the high water mark of our civilization.
KateSherrod (Kate Sherrod aka K8E) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:39:05 -0000
@hubcomics It really, really does. But then it's showing it at what I think we will later recall as the high water mark of our civilization.
@Dom_Walsh No Elite, no MUD, no Flight Simulator, no Sim City, no Civilization... and the Forbes layout is just terrible! ;-)
jackschofield (Jack Schofield) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:36:22 -0000
@Dom_Walsh No Elite, no MUD, no Flight Simulator, no Sim City, no Civilization... and the Forbes layout is just terrible! ;-)
I'm so stranded, and thinking warm, sunny thoughts... will we ever see civilization again?
rolandafr (Rolanda FR) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:35:43 -0000
I'm so stranded, and thinking warm, sunny thoughts... will we ever see civilization again?
A civilization is as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamt by artists.~Anonymous
Ratmtent (Charles Evans) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:32:23 -0000
A civilization is as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamt by artists.~Anonymous
RT If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
supportexpert (Sellenee Sich) Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:29:44 -0000
RT If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

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