-ism

-ism(/-ˌɪzəm/) is asuffixin manyEnglish words,originally derived from theAncient Greeksuffix-ισμός(-ismós), and reachedEnglishthrough theLatin-ismus,and theFrench-isme.^[1]It is used to create abstract nouns of action, state, condition, or doctrine, and is often used to describephilosophies,theories,religions,social movements,artistic movements,lifestyles,^[2]behaviors,scientific phenomena,^[3]ormedical conditions.^[4]^[5]

The concept of an -ism may resemble that of agrand narrative.^[6]

Skeptics of any given -isms can quote the dictum attributed toEisenhower:"All -isms are wasms".^[7]

History

The first recorded usage of the suffixismas a separate word in its own right was in 1680. By the nineteenth century it was being used byThomas Carlyleto signify a pre-packagedideology.It was later used in this sense by such writers asJulian HuxleyandGeorge 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 asslavery abolitionism,feminism,alcohol prohibitionism,Fourierism,pacifism,Technoism, earlysocialism,etc.) and various spiritual or religious movements considered non-mainstream by the standards of the time (such astranscendentalism,spiritualism,Mormonismetc.). 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, theExaminernewspaper ofRichmond, Virginia,ran editorials on "Our Enemies, the Isms and their Purposes", while in 1858Parson Brownlowcalled for a "Missionary Society of the South, for the Conversion of the Freedom Shriekers, Spiritualists, Free-lovers, Fourierites, andInfidelReformers of the North "(seeThe Freedom-of-thought Struggle in the Old SouthbyClement Eaton). In the present day, it appears in the title of a standard survey of political thought,Today's Ismsby William Ebenstein, first published in the 1950s, and now in its 11th edition.

In 2004, theOxford English Dictionaryadded 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'; asracism,sexism,speciesism,etc. "
"Forming nouns with the sense 'discriminationorprejudiceagainst on the basis of—'; asageism,bodyism,heightism,faceism,lookism,sizeism,weightism,etc. "

In December 2015,Merriam-Webster Dictionarydeclared -ism to be the Word of the Year.^[9]

Notes and references

^"-ism".Oxford English Dictionary online.Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2014.(subscription required)
^Such ashedonismorconsumerism
^Such asmagnetism
^Such as anembolism,dwarfism,orpriapism
^"ism suffix".Oxford English Dictionary online.Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2023.(subscription required)
^Prettejohn, Elizabeth(15 September 2012). "The Discovery of Greek Sculpture".The Modernity of Ancient Sculpture: Greek Sculpture and Modern Art from Winckelmann to Picasso.New Directions in Classics Series. Vol. 2. London: I.B.Tauris (published 2012). p. 61.ISBN 9781848859036.[...] another grand narrative, no less compelling than the familiar succession of 'isms' [...]
^ Braund, Susanna Morton(19 July 2005) [2002].Latin Literature.Classical Foundations. Routledge. p. 65.ISBN 9781134646777.Retrieved6 August2023.As President Eisenhower allegedly said, 'All -isms are wasms'. [...] I hope to avoid the tyranny of the -isms [...].
^Krieger, Nancy (2020)."Measures of Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, and Gender Binarism for Health Equity Research: From Structural Injustice to Embodied Harm – An Ecosocial Analysis".Annual Review of Public Health.41:37–62.doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040119-094017.PMID 31765272.
^"The Word of the Year is: -ism | Merriam-Webster".

-ism

Contents

History

See also

Notes and references

Further reading