Assoc

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A shortened form of association, used in informal writing or on forms ; a programming function that looks up a key in a list of key-value pairs
2. Short for association in everyday or written use ; a Lisp routine that finds the matching entry for a given key in an association list
3. An abbreviated term meaning an association or society ; a built-in function in the Lisp language that retrieves a pair from a keyed list

Etymology: "Assoc" is a clipping of "association," and the clipped form is almost always used in informal or institutional shorthand. The full word goes back through Latin: "associātiō" was formed from "associō," meaning "to join with" or "to unite," which itself combined "ad-" (toward) with "socius" (companion, ally). So the root idea is of bringing companions together. English took "association" from that Latin noun, with the route possibly running through French. The sense of a body of people joined for a shared purpose is the one that dominates English, and the short form "assoc" is a modern convenience, used in names like "Law Assoc." or "Pharm Assoc." where space or repetition matters. Its meaning is therefore the same as the parent word, and it inherits the sociable sense of "socius" along with it.