aspheterism
/æsˈfɛtəˌɹɪz(ə)m/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The view that all property should be in common ownership and that no individual should benefit from private possession.
Dated; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We preached Pantisocracy and Aspheterism everywhere. These, Tom, are two new words, the first signifying the equal government of all, and the other the generalisation of individual property; words well understood in the city of Bristol."
- "In short he [Robert Southey] was always guided by his sympathies; and as he was never in his hottest days of Aspheterism anything like a consistent and reasoned Radical, so in his most rancorous days of reaction he never was a consistent and reasoned Tory."
- "A more free-wheeling verbal invention of [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge's, "Aspheterism," meant the absence of private property. "Aspheterism" would vanquish materialism and help raise a generation of children untainted by corrupt values."
- ""Aspheterism," then, the belief that only an abolition of private property would bring about the desired moral transformation, lies at the very heart of Pantisocracy. [Robert] Southey and [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge believed that once people returned to sharing a "common ground," they would no longer feel envy or a need to compete. […] But "aspheterism" was not the only milestone on their path to universal philanthropy; it was accompanied by ideas about improving everyday interpersonal behaviour."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ᾰ̓- (ă-, the alpha privative, a suffix forming words having a sense opposite to the word or stem to which it is attached) + σφέτερος (sphéteros, “theirs, their own”) (from σφεῖς (spheîs, “they; themselves”) + -τερος (-teros, suffix forming adjectives expressing some notion of contrast)) + -ism, influenced by σφετερισμός (spheterismós, “usurpation”). The word was coined by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) in a 1794 letter to fellow poet Robert Southey (1774–1843).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /æsˈfɛtəˌɹɪz(ə)m/
- British English: /əsˈfɛtəˌɹɪz(ə)m/