Maatschappe

Maatschappe is an historical Dutch noun meaning a body of people united by a common purpose. In older Dutch texts it functioned as a generic term for a society, association, or corporation, encompassing civic communities as well as commercial or professional bodies. The concept emphasizes collective action rather than individual effort, and it could refer to a town’s governing group, a guild, a religious fraternity, or a trading venture.

Usage and contexts: In Middle Dutch and Early Modern Dutch, maatschappe appears in legal documents, chronicles, and literary works to denote organized groups formed for mutual aims. It was used for non-profit associations such as fraternities or civic bodies and for business partnerships or trading ventures; in some contexts it was used interchangeably with the Latin societas. The spelling maatschappe is a historical variant; forms such as maatschappy or samenschap also appear in sources.

Relation to modern Dutch: The concept persists in modern language, but the specific term maatschappe has largely fallen out of everyday use. Modern equivalents include maatschappij, meaning society or company, and vereniging for an association. The element schap survives in several related words as a suffix indicating a state, order, or partnership.

Related terms: In studying Dutch history and language, related terms include maatschappij, vereniging, vennootschap, and samenschap. Modern readers most often encounter the modern forms maatschappij/maatschappij or vereniging, depending on context.