† ˈegomism Obs. rare.
[a. Fr. égomisme: see ego and -ism. The inserted m Littré conjectures to be derived from the pronoun me. More probably the word was a parody of some older term, such as atomisme.]
The belief of one who considers himself the only being in existence.
| [1727 Ramsay Disc. sur la Mythol. 90 Une espèce de Pyrrhonisme nommé l'Egomisme, ou chacun se croit le seul être existent.] c 1730 A. Baxter Eng. Nat. Soul (1745) XI. 21 That kind of Scepticism called Egomism. 1856 W. H. Thompson in A. Butler Hist. Anc. Philos. I. 80 note, It [egoism] is not more barbarous than its homonym ‘egotism’, and much less so than ‘egomism’, which occurs in ‘Baxter On the Soul’, where it is attributed to certain Cartesians. |