-ism

English-language suffix thumb|Cover of The Isms of Art (1925) by Jean Arp and El Lissitzky, listing many art movements such as constructivism, Dadaism, expressionism, among others. Ism / -ism (- ˌ ɪ z əm) is a suffix in many English words, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix grc -ισμός (-ισμός), and reached English through the Latin la -ismus, and the French fr -isme. 2014 -ism Oxford English Dictionary online Oxford University Press Oxford http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/100006 It is used to create abstract nouns of action, state, condition, or doctrine, and is often used to describe philosophies, theories, religions, social movements, artistic movements, lifestyles,Such as hedonism or consumerism behaviors, scientific phenomena,Such as magnetism or medical conditions.Such as an embolism, dwarfism, or priapism 2023 ism suffix Oxford English Dictionary online Oxford University Press Oxford https://www.oed.com/dictionary/ism_suffix The suffix has also been used as an independent noun since the 17th century. The concept of an 'ism' can, and often does, resemble that of a grand narrative.Prettejohn Elizabeth Elizabeth Prettejohn https://books.google.com/books?id=eZtCo4FavAkC The Modernity of Ancient Sculpture: Greek Sculpture and Modern Art from Winckelmann to Picasso 15 September 2012 I.B.Tauris 9781848859036 New Directions in Classics Series 2 London 2012 61 The Discovery of Greek Sculpture [...] another grand narrative, no less compelling than the familiar succession of 'isms' [...] History British origins and development, 17th to 19th century 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. This is the state of affairs characterized by Andreas Dorschel: "An 'ism', the modern political manifestation of living in terms of options, only ever makes sense within a field of possibilities between which one can, and indeed must, choose. In 19th century politics, they ranged from socialism to liberalism to conservatism; mutually, but also polemically within their own camps, they were all pretty much the best of enemies."Andreas Dorschel, Die Welt verändern. Zur Poetik des Manifests. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2026, p. 81: “Ein Ismus, die politische Manifestation des modernen Lebens in Optionen, hat stets nur Sinn innerhalb eines Feldes von Möglichkeiten, zwischen denen man sich entscheiden kann, aber auch entscheiden muß. Sie reichen im vorliegenden Fall vom Sozialismus über den Liberalismus bis zum Konservativismus; wechselseitig, aber auch jeweils innerhalb des eigenen Lagers polemisierend, sind sie allesamt ziemlich beste Feinde.” United States of America, 19th century 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 slavery abolitionism, feminism, alcohol 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.). American South, 19th century 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 Infidel Reformers of the North" (see The Freedom-of-thought Struggle in the Old South by Clement Eaton). Western world, 20th to 21st century en In the present day, the term 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. Skeptics of any given -isms can quote the dictum attributed to Eisenhower: "All -isms are wasms".Braund Susanna Morton Susanna Braund https://books.google.com/books?id=vLDb8oLHxn8C Latin Literature 19 July 2005 Routledge 9781134646777 Classical Foundations 65 As President Eisenhower allegedly said, 'All -isms are wasms'. [...] I hope to avoid the tyranny of the -isms [...]. 6 August 2023 2002 In 2004, the Oxford English Dictionary added two new draft definitions of -isms to reference their relationship to words that convey injustice:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040119-094017 free Measures of Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, and Gender Binarism for Health Equity Research: From Structural Injustice to Embodied HarmAn Ecosocial Analysis 2020 Krieger Nancy Annual Review of Public Health 41 37–62 31765272 "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. http://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year-2015/-ism The Word of the Year is: -ism Merriam-Webster 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 Vandalism Cannibalism Voyeurism Terrorism Notes and references Further reading Today's Isms: Socialism, Capitalism, Fascism, Communism, Libertarianism by Alan Ebenstein, William Ebenstein and Edwin Fogelman (11th ed, Pearson, 1999, 978-0130257147) Isms and Ologies: 453 Difficult Doctrines You've Always Pretended to Understand by Arthur Goldwag (Quercus, 2007, 978-1847241764) ranges from Abolitionism to Zoroastrianism. Isms: Understanding Art by Stephen Little (A & C Black, 2004, 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. Category:English suffixes Category:Belief Category:Suffixes of Greek origin