-ism  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Glossary of philosophy

The suffix -ism denotes a distinctive system of beliefs, myth, doctrine or theory that guides a social movement, institution, class or group. For example, baptize (literally derived from "to dip") becomes "baptism," a distinctive system of cleansing in water to testify to the forgiveness of sins . It is taken from the Greek suffix -ismos, Latin -ismus, and Old French -isme, that forms nouns from verbal stems. Greek baptismos "immersion", for example, is derived from baptizein, a Greek verb meaning "to immerse". Its usage has since been extended to signify the ideology or philosophy surrounding the element to which the suffix is added.

Suffix

1. the action or result of a verb

   baptism (from baptise)

2. a principle, belief or movement

   chauvinism (coined after Nicolas Chauvin)

   conservatism (from conservative)

   externalism

   feminism (from femina, Latin for woman)

   liberalism

   Marxism (coined after Karl Marx)

   masculism (from masculus, Latin for male)

3. a form of prejudice or discrimination, either for or against a group

   alphabetism (from alphabet)

   nationism (from nation)

   racism (from race)

   religionism (from religion)

   sexism (from sex)

   sexualism (from sexuality)

   ableism (from able)

   heterosexism (from heterosexual)

4. the defining attribute of a person or thing

   heroism (from hero)

   Shakespeareanism (coined after William Shakespeare)

5. a disorder

   autism (from autós, Greek for "self")