Purist
Alpinist
Nudist
Biologist
Philatelist
Internationalist
Modernist
Is it just me, or is there really something negative about those "ist" words?
Adding ist or ism to a word usually colors it negatively, as can be seen in secularist. ... As Christianist, with its evocation of Islamist, gains wider usage as an attack word on what used to be called the religious right, another suffix is being used in counterattack to derogate those who denounce church influence in politics. ... Let the listener or reader beware: -ist and -phobe, more often than not these days, are suffixes tacked on to words to turn them into fierce derogations.
There is nothing negative about -ists anymore than there is about -isms. Sure, there are some -isms that a great many people (and gee, which camp are they in) have spent a lot of time trying to convince the world of their badness. Marxism, feminism, Chartism, republicanism. Oops. Well, there ya go. All -isms must be bad.
*sigh*
Posted by binky at November 30, 2006 01:18 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Blogorama