-ism, -ismus

1. The disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge.
2. The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.
3. A religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God: "Agnosticism holds that you can neither prove nor disprove God's existence."

1. Chronic alcohol abuse, dependence, or addiction; chronic excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages resulting in impairment of health and/or social or occupational functioning, and increasing adaptation to the effects of alcohol requiring increasing doses to achieve and sustain a desired effect; specific signs and symptoms of withdrawal usually are shown when one stops such drinking.
2. "Alcohol dependence" (currently the preferred term); "alcohol addiction".

The terms refer to a variety of disorders associated with the repetitive consumption of alcohol, usually over a long period of time, in amounts that the drinker is unable to handle physiologically, emotionally, or socially.

1. Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.
2. An attitude or way of behaving marked by unselfish concern for the welfare of others.
3. The belief that acting for the benefit of others is right and good.

1. Hostility or hatred causing opposition and ill will.
2. Opposition between forces or principles.
3. In physiology, the interaction between two or more chemical substances in the body that diminishes the effect each of them has individually.
4. In physiology, the opposing force that usually exists between parts of muscles.

1. A form of speech or phrase proper to, or characteristic of, ordinary conversation; a colloquial expression.
2. An informal word or phrase that is more common in normal conversation than in formal speech or writing.

1. Positive assertion of dogma or opinion; dogmatizing; positiveness in the assertion of opinion.
2. A system of philosophy based upon principles dictated by reasoning alone, and not relying upon experience; opposed to skepticism.

More generally, a way of thinking based upon principles which have not been tested by reflection.

1. An inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive.
2. A word, or phrase, which is used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, too harsh, too unpleasant, or too offensive.
3. The use of a word, or phrase, that is more neutral, vague, or indirect to replace a direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive term.

1. The belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable.

A submissive attitude to events, resulting from such a a belief.

2. A philosophical doctrine holding that all events are predetermined in advance for all time and human beings are powerless to change them.
3. An attitude of resignation and passivity that results from the belief that people are powerless against fate.

1. The belief that the earth is the center of the universe.
2. The belief that the sun revolves around the earth. This was all the rage in Galileo's day.
3. Within the environmental movement, a concern over the state and future of the earth.

The words hypnosis and hypnotism are derived from the Greek word hypnos, meaning sleep. Hypnotism is a means of bringing on an artificial state of sleep to the participant; more accurately described as a state of reduced consciousness while one is still a awake.

Following the challenges about the validity or accuracy of Mesmerism by the medical profession, few reputable physicians practiced mesmerism until the middle of the nineteenth century, or early 1840's, when James Braid, a Manchester, England, surgeon, experimenting with the phenomenon, decided that it was not at all due to "animal magnetism" or to any other mysterious influence that passed from the physician to the patient.

Braid noticed that a trance produced by "fixing attention" was similar to that of animal magnetism but at first thought it was a different condition.

Later he concluded the two were identical. Early in his work, he believed that the fixation of the eyes on a bright object brought on a trance but, with more experience, he concluded that suggestion was the real explanation.

It was Braid who coined from the Greek element hypnos, meaning "sleep", the words hypnotism and hypnosis to describe this new science and the trance condition that was produced. He maintained that through the aid of hypnotism important physical and psychical effects could be obtained.

So, it was James Braid (1795-1860), a Scottish surgeon and hypnotist, who inaugurated modern hypnotic techniques in his book, Neurypnology, studying the subject with a seriousness that led to the inclusion of hypnotism in the treatment of nervous disorders by his successors.

At first he called the procedure "neuro-hypnosis" and then, believing sleep was involved, he suggested "hypnosis". Realizing that hypnosis was not really "sleep", he later tried to change the name to monoideaism (or monoideism, "a marked preoccupation with one idea or subject"), but the term hypnosis has remained ever since.

For many years, Braid practiced in London, using suggestion therapy and performing operations by using hypnotic anesthesia (typically anaesthesia is the British spelling).

There is an informative article about hypnotism or "sleep" words at Hypnotism, sleep wonderful sleep.

Ludicrous misuse of words; an instance of this.

1. A recently coined word or phrase, or a recently extended meaning of an existing word or phrase.
2. The practice of coining new words or phrases, or of extending the meaning of existing words or phrases.
3. In medicine and psychiatry, a new word or phrase of the patient's own making often seen in schizophrenia (e.g., "headshoe" to mean hat), or an existing word used in a new sense.

In psychiatry, such usages may have meaning only to the patient or be indicative of his/her condition.

4. The use of an unconventional vocabulary innovation; when the use of such a coinage or innovation is either rationally, to represent a new idea, method, or object; or as with a disordered neurologic condition; such as, delirium, or in a mental disorder as with schizophrenia, when the patient wishes to express a highly complex meaning related to his/her conflicts.
5. Etymology: "practice of innovation in language", 1800, from French néologisme, from Greek neo-, "new" + Greek logos, "word".