culture

Etymology

From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

noun

1. The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.
   Castration of bulls was a socialization process that turned a bull into an ox; in this transformation something wild became something very useful; nature became culture. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 125
   Such differences of history and culture have lingering consequences. Almost all the corn and soyabeans grown in America are genetically modified. GM crops are barely tolerated in the European Union. Both America and Europe offer farmers indefensible subsidies, but with different motives. 2013-09-07, “Farming as rocket science”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852
2. The beliefs, values, behaviour and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.
3. The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.
   Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164
4. (anthropology) Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
5. (botany, agriculture) Cultivation.
   http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/flowers/sprgbulb.htm The Culture of Spring-Flowering Bulbs
6. (microbiology) The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
7. The growth thus produced.
   I'm headed to the lab to make sure my cell culture hasn't died.
8. A group of bacteria.
9. (cartography) The details on a map that do not represent natural features of the area delineated, such as names and the symbols for towns, roads, meridians, and parallels.
10. (archaeology) A recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society.
11. (euphemistic) Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.)

verb

1. (transitive) to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)
2. (transitive) to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)