-ism
English
editEtymology
editUltimately from Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine, from stem of verbs in -ίζειν (-ízein) (whence English -ize). Doublet of -ismus.
Many English nouns in -ism are loans of Greek nouns in -ισμός (-ismós), often via Latin and French, such as Judaism, a learned English formation from Latin attested from ca. 1500 and ultimately from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαϊσμός (Ioudaïsmós). In Late Latin, the -ismus suffix became the ordinary ending for names of religions and ecclesiastical or philosophical systems or schools of thought, thus chrīstiānismus (whence 16th c. Christianism) in Tertullian, a trend continued in Medieval Latin, with e.g. pāgānismus attested by the 8th century. From the 16th century, such formations became very common in English, until the early 18th century mostly restricted to either root words of Greek or Latin origin (heroism, patriotism) or proper names (Calvinism, Lutheranism).
Productivity from root words with evidently non-Latin and non-Greek origin dates to the late 18th century (e.g. blackguardism). Reflecting this productivity, use of ism as a standalone noun is attested in Edward Pettit (1680) and becomes common from the mid-18th century. The narrowed sense of forming terms for ideologies based on the belief of superiority is based on coinages such as racism (1932) or sexism (1936) and productive since the 1970s.
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ɪzəm/, [ɪ.zm̩]
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Suffix
edit-ism
- Used to form nouns of action, process, or result based on the accompanying verb ending in -ise or -ize.
- Used to form the name of a school of thought, system, or theory based on the name of its subject or object or alternatively on the name of its founder (When de-capitalized, these overlap with the generic "doctrines" sense below, e.g. Liberalism vs. liberalism.)
- Lutheranism (1560), Calvinism (1570), Protestantism (1606), Congregationalism (1716), Mohammedanism (1815),: Palamism (1949)
- Used to form names of a tendency of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to a class or group of persons, or the result of a doctrine, ideology, or principle or lack thereof.
- atheism (1587), ruffianism (1589), giantism (1639), fanaticism (1652), theism (1678), religionism (1706), patriotism (1716), heroism (1717), despotism (1728), old-maidism (1776), capitalism (1792), nationism (1798), romanticism (1803), conservatism (1832), sexualism (1842), vegetarianism (1848), externalism (1856), young-ladyism (1869), opportunism (1870), blackguardism (1875), jingoism (1878), feminism (1895), dwarfism (1895)
- 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger:
- Howard didn't care much for beer, but that night he helped himself to three cans of Vi's new find nevertheless. Vi commented on it, said that if she had known he was going to like it that much, she would have stopped by the drugstore and gotten him an IV hookup. Another time-honored Vi-ism.
- 2020, Ministry of Broadcast, Hitcents, Nintendo Switch, scene: game over:
- WE ARE EXPERIENCING BROADCAST NOOBISM
- Used to form countable nouns indicating a peculiarity or characteristic of language
- Atticism (1612), Gallicism (1656), archaism (1709), Americanism (1781), colloquialism (1834), newspaperism (1838), Shakespearianism (1886)
- 2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 136:
- Note that these sayings attributed to Yogi Berra might be apocryphal […] These sayings remain, however, quintessential Berraisms.
- Used to form names of ideologies expressing belief in the superiority of a certain class within the concept expressed by the root word, or a pattern of behavior or a social norm that benefits members of the group indicated by the root word. (Based on a late 20th-century narrowing of the "terms for a doctrine" sense.)
- racism (1932), sexism (1936), classism (1971), speciesism (1975), heterosexism (1979), ableism (1981)
- (medicine) Used to form names of conditions (syndromes, diseases, disorders, defects, addictions) and therapeutical methods or doctrines.
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
edit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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References
edit- Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "-ism, suffix".
Anagrams
editRomanian
editAlternative forms
edit- -исм (-ism) — Moldovan Cyrillic spelling
Etymology
editBorrowed from Latin -ismus, French -isme, ultimately from Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós).
Pronunciation
editSuffix
edit-ism n (plural -isme)
- -ism (indicates a belief or principle)
- creștin (“Christian”) + -ism → creștinism (“Christianity”)
- anarhie (“anarchy”) + -ism → anarhism (“anarchism”)
Declension
editDerived terms
editRelated terms
editSwedish
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editSuffix
edit-ism c
- -ism
- kommunism ― communism
- kannibalism ― canibalism
- surrealism ― surrealism
Declension
editDerived terms
editRelated terms
editAnagrams
edit- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English doublets
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English suffixes
- English noun-forming suffixes
- English productive suffixes
- English terms with quotations
- en:Medicine
- Romanian terms borrowed from Latin
- Romanian terms derived from Latin
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian suffixes
- Romanian noun-forming suffixes
- Romanian neuter suffixes
- Swedish terms borrowed from French
- Swedish terms derived from French
- Swedish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish suffixes
- Swedish common-gender suffixes
- Swedish terms with usage examples