Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Philistinism |
PhilistinismNoun1. A desire for wealth and material possessions with little interest in ethical or spiritual matters. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "philistinism" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1915. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Philistinism A cynical indifference and supercilious sneering at religion. The allusion is to the Philistines of Palestine. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Philistinism affords a contrast to Bohemianism, as the character of a smugly conventional bourgeois social group perceived to lack all the desirably soulful 'bohemian' characteristics, especially an artistic temperament and a broad cultural horizon open to the avant-garde. To the chosen few, the 'Philistines' embodied a smug, anti-intellectual threatening majority, in the 'culture wars' of the 19th century.A Philistine in Old Testament terms was a pagan inhabitant of the southwestern coastal cities of Canaan, such as Gaza. The Philistines were the neighbors and enemies of the Hebrews. The word came from Hebrew pelishtim, the people of 'Pelesheth' ('Philistia'). The word Philister (Luther's translation) was taken up in German student slang, supposedly first in Jena in the late 17th century, as a dismissive term for the townspeople (compare the American college slang, 'townies,') It is said that at a memorial service for a student killed in a town-gown clash, the minister took for his the text the words of Delilah to Samson,'The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!' .
Jonathan Swift applied the term to a gruff bailiff in a lawsuit, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan applied the term to one of his characters, 'that bloodthirsty Philistine, Sir Lucius O'Trigger,' in The Rivals, 1775, but 'Philistine' really came to have its modern English secondary meaning, of a person deficient in the culture of the Liberal Arts beginning in the 1820s.
Matthew Arnold was the champion of Victorian 'high culture' countering the forces of the Philistines. In his Essays in Criticism (1865) he pointed out (in his essay on the German poet Heinrich Heine) that ' 'Philistine' must have originally meant, in the mind of those who invented the nickname, a strong, dogged, unenlightened opponent of the children of the light.' In another context Arnold wrote,'The people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich... are just the very people whom we call the Philistines.' From his example, 'Philistine' passed into the enlightened liberal's armament of cultural scorn.
With the general triumph of Philistine anti-culture during the 20th century, the term itself has dropped out of use.
Compare barbarian, boor, churl, vulgarian, yahoo.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Philistinism."
Synonym: PhilistinismSynonym: materialism (n). (additional references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Philistinism" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.15% of the time. "Philistinism" is used about 26 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.15% | 25 | 69,787 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 3.85% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 26 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "philistinism": anti-philistinism. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "philistinism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | الفلسطينية. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | филистерство, еснафщина, простащина (commonness, rankness, vulgarism, vulgarity). (various references) | |
Czech | šosáctví. (various references) | |
French | philistinisme. (various references) | |
German | Spießbürgertum. (various references) | |
Hungarian | nyárspolgárság, filiszterség, filiszteri szellem. (various references) | |
Manx | barbaraght (barbarity, cruelty, inhumanity, ruthlessness). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ilistinismphay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | espírito de filisteu. (various references) | |
Romanian | filistinism. (various references) | |
Russian | филистерство. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sitničarenje. (various references) | |
Swedish | brackighet. (various references) | |
Turkish | cahillik ve zevksizlik. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tư tưởng tầm thường, chủ nghĩa vật chất. (various references) | |
Welsh | Philistiaeth. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "philistinism": philistinisms. (additional references) | |
| |
"Philistinism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: philistinus. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "philistinism" (pronounced 'Phi*lis"tin*ism'): Abolitionism, Absenteeism, Absinthism, Absolutism, Academicism, Academism, Accidentalism, Achromatism, Acosmism, Acrobatism, Acrotism, Actinism, Adiaphorism, AEstheticism, Africanism, Agnosticism, Agonism, Agrarianism, Agriculturism, Albinism, Albinoism, Alcoholism, Alienism, Allodialism, Allomerism, Allomorphism, Allotheism, Alphabetism, Altruism, Amateurism, Americanism, Amorphism, Anabaptism, Anachorism, Anachronism, Anacrotism, Anagrammatism, Analogism, Anamorphism, Anarchism, Anathematism, Anatocism, Anatomism, Anchoretism, Andabatism, Aneurism, Anglicanism, Anglicism, Anglo-Catholicism, Anglo-Saxonism. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "h-i-i-i-i-l-m-n-p-s-s-t" | |
-3 letters: nihilisms, nihilists. | |
-4 letters: nihilism, nihilist, simplist. | |
-5 letters: instils, pistils, plinths, shilpit, simlins, spilths, splints. | |
| Words containing the letters "h-i-i-i-i-l-m-n-p-s-s-t" | |
+1 letter: philistinisms. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Expressions 6. Translations: Modern 7. Derivations 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
