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-ism

Origin

a suffix appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it was used to form action nouns from verbs (baptism); on this model, used as a productive suffix in the formation of nouns denoting action or practice, state or condition, principles, doctrines, a usage or characteristic, devotion or adherence, etc. (criticism; barbarism; Darwinism; despotism; plagiarism; realism; witticism; intellectualism).

Compare -ist, -ize.

Origin:
< Greek -ismos, -isma noun suffixes, often directly, often through Latin -ismus, -isma, sometimes through French -isme, German -ismus (all ultimately < Gk)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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-ism is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

-ism

—*suffix forming nouns*
1.	indicating an action, process, or result: criticism; terrorism
2.	indicating a state or condition: paganism
3.	indicating a doctrine, system, or body of principles and practices: Leninism; spiritualism
4.	indicating behaviour or a characteristic quality: heroism
5.	indicating a characteristic usage, esp of a language: colloquialism; Scotticism
6.	indicating prejudice on the basis specified: sexism; ageism

[from Old French -isme, from Latin -ismus, from Greek -ismos]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

-ism

suffix forming nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine, from Fr. -isme, from L. -isma, from Gk. -isma, from stem of verbs in -izein. Used as an independent word, chiefly disparagingly, from 1680.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

-ism suff.

Action, process; practice: vegetarianism.
Characteristic behavior or quality: puerilism.
State; condition; quality: senilism.
State or condition resulting from an excess of something specified: strychninism.
Doctrine; theory; system of principles: Darwinism.

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Matching Quote

"Surely the one thing needful for a Christian and an Englishman to study is Christian and moral and political philosophy, and then we should see our way a little more clearly without falling into Judaism, or Toryism, or Jacobinism, or any other ism whatever."

-Thomas Arnold

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