nosismn.
/ˈnəʊsɪz(ə)m/, /ˈnɒsɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈnoʊˌsɪz(ə)m/, /ˈnɑsɪz(ə)m/ 1. With reference to a group of people: a self-centred attitude, corresponding to egotism in an individual. rare before 20th cent.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > self-interest > [noun] > egotism > of a group
nosism1819
1819 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 5 97 The egotism or nosism of the other luminaries of the Lake School, is at times extravagant enough, and amusing enough withal.
1945 Sci. Monthly 60 167/2 There is a kind of comprehensive barrier to mutual understanding in the sentiment of ‘ethno-centrism’, which is group-egoism, or ‘nos-ism’.
1958 N. J. Jacobs Naming-Day in Eden 59 The love of our own is an elementary form of narcissism or nosism.
1975 E. O. Wilson Sociobiol. 562 Nosism, hierarchical dominance systems.., and trance-induction are among the elements of religious behavior [which function] to circumscribe a social group.
2001 Irish Times (Nexis) 4 July 15 Holding cells for men who had been guilty of ageism, sexism, racism, speciesism, nosism, schedulism, sizeism.
2. With reference to an individual: the use of the word ‘we’ in stating his or her own opinions. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > [noun] > use of 'we'
wegotism1797
weism1800
nosism1829
1829 Examiner 162/1 We will be consistent according to the fashionable virtue of the day in nos-ism.
1864 Edinb. Rev. July 52 It tempts a man to indulge in Nos-ism, where modesty..would have made him shrink from undisguised egotism.
2010 B. Zimmer in N.Y. Times Mag. 3 Oct. 18/2 Given the accumulated resentment of ‘nosism’ (using we for I, from the Latin pronoun nos), it’s little wonder that modern literary writers have rarely tried to write narratives in the first-person plural.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1819