-ism () is a suffix in many English grammar, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix ( ), and reached English language through the Latin -ismus, and the French language -isme.[ ] It is used to create abstract nouns of action, state, condition, or doctrine, and is often used to describe philosophy, theories, , , artistic movements, lifestyles,[Such as hedonism or consumerism] , science,[Such as magnetism] or medicine.[Such as an embolism, dwarfism, or priapism][ ]
The concept of an -ism may resemble that of a grand narrative.
Skeptics of any given -isms can quote the dictum attributed to Eisenhower: "All -isms are wasms".[
]
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
Thomas Carlyle to signify a pre-packaged
ideology. It was later used in this sense by such writers as
Julian Huxley and George Bernard Shaw. In the United States of the mid-nineteenth century, the phrase "the isms" was used as a collective derogatory term to lump together the radical social reform movements of the day (such as
abolitionism,
feminism,
prohibitionism,
Fourierism,
pacifism, Technoism, early
socialism, etc.) and various spiritual or religious movements considered non-mainstream by the standards of the time (such as transcendentalism, spiritualism,
Mormonism etc.). Southerners often prided themselves on the American South being free from all of these pernicious "Isms" (except for alcohol temperance campaigning, which was compatible with a traditional Protestant focus on individual morality). So on September 5 and 9, 1856, the
Examiner newspaper of Richmond, Virginia, ran editorials on "Our Enemies, the Isms and their Purposes", while in 1858 Parson Brownlow called for a "Missionary Society of the South, for the Conversion of the Freedom Shriekers, Spiritualists, Free-lovers, Fourierites, and
atheism 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:
-
"Forming nouns with the sense 'belief in the superiority of one—over another'; as racism, sexism, speciesism, etc."
-
"Forming nouns with the sense 'discrimination or prejudice against on the basis of—'; as ageism, bodyism, heightism, faceism, lookism, sizeism, weightism, etc."
In December 2015, Merriam-Webster Dictionary declared -ism to be the Word of the Year.
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
-
Vandalism
Notes and references
Further reading
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by Alan Ebenstein, William Ebenstein and Edwin Fogelman (11th ed, Pearson, 1999, )
-
by Arthur Goldwag (Quercus, 2007, ) ranges from Abolitionism to Zoroastrianism.
-
by Stephen Little (A & C Black, 2004, ), one of a series of similar titles including ... Architecture, ... Modern Art, ... Fashion and ... Religions.
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The Ism Book: A Field Guide to Philosophy by Peter Saint-Andre.
