consumerism

Etymology

It is formed from English consumer + -ism.^[2][3][4] Consumer is an agent noun from consume,^[3][2] which is from Old French consumer (“to consume”) and Latin cōnsūmō (“to use up, eat, waste”), from com- and sūmō (“to take”).^[3] Etymonline credits the economic term to the engineer Sidney A. Reeve, quoting Collier's magazine of 1924 on his "minted" word,^[3] and the OED's first quotation for the economic sense is from Reeve's “Modern Economic Tendencies” (1921).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Advocacy of the rights and interests of consumers: 1915, in Colman's Rural World.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1922,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1944.^[5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1940–45 and calls it an Americanism.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the protection of consumers, the word was used from 1921 for an economic doctrine that a constant growth in consumption is the basis of a sound economy.^[2][6][5] In the mid-20th century, according to Etymonline, it was also used as an alternative to capitalism for the Western economy driven by consumers, in contrast to Soviet communism.^[3] From 1960 it came to mean an excessive preoccupation with buying consumer goods, frequently as a term of disapproval.^[2][3][5] Consumerist followed as a noun in 1965 and as an adjective in 1969.^[3]

Timeline

• 1915 – advocacy of consumers' rights and interests.^[2]
• 1921 – the doctrine that rising consumption is good for the economy.^[2]
• 1960 – preoccupation with acquiring consumer goods.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A preoccupation with buying and owning consumer goods, often seen as excessive: a holiday season swamped by consumerism.^[5][2]
2. The theory that an ever-increasing consumption of goods is good for the economy.^[5][6][2]
3. The protection or promotion of the interests of consumers.^[5][6][2]

Word family

• consumerist
• consumeristic
• anticonsumerism

Related words

• conspicuous consumption
• consumerize
• consumer
• consume
• consumption

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins