-ism
Look up -ism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
-ism (
The concept of an -ism may resemble that of a
grand narrative.[6]
Skeptics of any given -isms can quote the dictum attributed to Eisenhower: "All -isms are wasms".[7]
History
The first recorded usage of the suffix ism as a separate word in its own right was in 1680. By the nineteenth century it was being used by
Parson Brownlow called for a "Missionary Society of the South, for the Conversion of the Freedom Shriekers, Spiritualists, Free-lovers, Fourierites, and Infidel Reformers of the North" (see The Freedom-of-thought Struggle in the Old South by Clement Eaton
). In the present day, it appears in the title of a standard survey of political thought, Today's Isms by William Ebenstein, first published in the 1950s, and now in its 11th edition.
In 2004, the Oxford English Dictionary added two new draft definitions of -isms to reference their relationship to words that convey injustice:[8]
- "Forming nouns with the sense 'belief in the superiority of one—over another'; as racism, sexism, speciesism, etc."
- "Forming nouns with the sense 'weightism, etc."
In December 2015, Merriam-Webster Dictionary declared -ism to be the Word of the Year.[9]
See also
For examples of the use of -ism as a suffix:
- List of philosophies
- Glossary of philosophy
- List of political ideologies
- List of art movements
- Discrimination § Types
Notes and references
- ^ "-ism". Oxford English Dictionary online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2014. (subscription required)
- ^ Such as hedonism or consumerism
- ^ Such as magnetism
- ^ Such as an embolism, dwarfism, or priapism
- ^ "ism suffix". Oxford English Dictionary online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2023. (subscription required)
- ISBN 9781848859036.
[...] another grand narrative, no less compelling than the familiar succession of 'isms' [...]
- ^
ISBN 9781134646777. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
As President Eisenhower allegedly said, 'All -isms are wasms'. [...] I hope to avoid the tyranny of the -isms [...].
- PMID 31765272.
- ^ "The Word of the Year is: -ism | Merriam-Webster".
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0130257147)
- ISBN 978-1847241764) ranges from Abolitionism to Zoroastrianism.
- ISBN 978-0713670110), one of a series of similar titles including ... Architecture, ... Modern Art, ... Fashion and ... Religions.
- The Ism Book: A Field Guide to Philosophy by Peter Saint-Andre.