Word: localism Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree English local Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English localism From local (adjective) + -ism (suffix forming names of tendencies of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to classes or groups of persons), originally modelled after French localisme. Sense 3.2 (“approach to understanding linguistic expressions in terms of movement and position”) was coined by the British linguist John Lyons (1932–2020) in his book Semantics (1977). Pronunciation: /ˈləʊkəlɪz(ə)m/, /ˈləʊkl̩ɪz(ə)m/, /ˈloʊkəˌlɪzəm/ 1. Attachment to or preference for a particular local place, especially the place where one lives; hence, feelings, opinions, or policies which emphasize or focus on local phenomena; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: uncountable Example: [H]e vvas ſtyled a patriot vvho, juſt tovvard his countrymen, and unjuſt to others, vvas blind to the merits of ſtrangers, and believed the very vices of his ovvn country to be perfections.—In ſuch a case, vvhy not reſtrain that love vvithin a narrovver compaſs, to citizens living in the ſame tovvn, or to the members of one family; or vvhy even ſhould not each perſon have concentrated his affections in himſelf? VVe really beheld Patriotiſm, generating Localiſm, the confined ſpirit of families, and at length Egoiſm. Example: [T]hese faux-traditional shops, harking back to an era of localism and pretty clockwork high streets, can help cleave a neighbourhood in two, making very clear the difference in means of those who live nearby. 2. Attachment to or preference for a particular local place, especially the place where one lives; hence, feelings, opinions, or policies which emphasize or focus on local phenomena; (countable) an instance of this. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Localism may strengthen not just the selfless (eg, people who want to build a village hall) but also the selfish (who want to stop any new building in their backyard). 3. A thing which is characteristic of a particular local place. Labels: countable 4. A linguistic feature such as a word or phrase that is unique to a locality. Labels: countable Example: Their domestic language was the one their grandparents had brought from Spain across Venezuela in the previous century, revitalized by Caribbean localisms, the Africanisms of slaves, and fragments of the Goajiro language that filtered into ours, drop by drop. 5. An approach to understanding linguistic expressions in terms of movement and position (sometimes abstract; for example, one who is hungry is said to be in a notional "space" of hunger). Labels: uncountable Example: Stronger and weaker versions of localism can be distinguished according to the range of grammatical categories and constructions that are brought within its scope. At its weakest, the localist hypothesis is restricted to the incontrovertible fact that temporal expressions, in many unrelated languages, are patently derived from locative expressions. […] The spatialization of time is so obvious and so pervasive a phenomenon in the grammatical and lexical structure of so many of the world's languages that it has been frequently noted, even by scholars who would not think of themselves as subscribing to the hypothesis of localism. Example: Other theoretical approaches that stress the primacy of space or spatial meaning in language with respect to other domains or meanings are localism and case grammar. In localism, spatial expressions are considered the most important category in the lexicon and in grammar. 6. The belief that language functions are localized to various parts of the brain. Labels: uncountable 7. The belief that fevers or diseases causing them originate from particular organs or parts of the body, or are due to conditions in a particular local place where patients live. Labels: historical, uncountable Example: Neither the morbid phenomena, nor the post-mortem appearances, in these cases, gave any support to the theory of localism, or the doctrine that teaches that there is no such disease as essential fever; that universally it is a symptomatic, not idiopathic affection; […]