egotism
(ˈɛg-, iːgətɪz(ə)m)
[f. ego + -ism, with intrusive t as in agiotage.
If the statement of Addison (quot. 1714) can be trusted, the word seems to have been invented by some of the Port-Royalists to range with the terms of rhetoric denoting ‘figures of speech’ and the like. (In accordance with this, Lord Chesterfield speaks of ‘the egotism’ as one might say ‘the aposiopesis’, ‘the chiasmus’.) It seems probable that egotism was formed on the pattern of some older word in -otism; cf. for example Fr. idiotisme.]
1. The obtrusive or too frequent use of the pronoun of the first person singular: hence the practice of talking about oneself or one's doings.
| 1714 Addison Spect. No. 562 ¶3 The Gentlemen of Port-Royal.. branded this Form of Writing [in the First Person] with the Name of an Egotism. 1747 Chesterfield Lett. I. cxxix. 344 Banish the egotism out of your conversation. 17.. Ibid. II. 238 Though I do not recommend the egotism to you with regard to any body else, I desire that you will use it with me. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. Introd. 16 The nature of journals renders egotisms unavoidable. 1775 Mason Mem. Gray Poems (1775) 173 The Reader..will excuse this short piece of egotism. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxx. 407 The egotism of personal narrative. |
2. The vice of thinking too much of oneself; self-conceit, boastfulness; also, selfishness.
| 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 503 My readers will pardon any appearance of egotism..since it is not easy to talk of oneself without giving offence. 1830 Coleridge Lect. Shaks. II. 116 The intense selfishness, the alcohol of egotism, which would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Napoleon Wks. (Bohn) I. 381 His absorbing egotism was deadly to all other men. 1853 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vii. 101 Sin is the withdrawing into self and egotism out of the vivifying life of God. 1858 Greener Gunnery 232 Without egotism, I can safely offer to make a gun or guns against any maker in the world. 1878 Lecky Eng. in 18th C. II. vii. 257 An intense class and national egotism then dominated all politics. |