fundamentalism

Etymology

It is formed from English fundamental + -ism,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or, as Etymonline treats it, from fundamentalist with -ism in place of -ist.^[7] The adjective fundamental, recorded from the mid-15th century, is from Late Latin fundamentalis (“of the foundation”), from Latin fundāmentum (“foundation”), the source of fundament.^[7][2] The OED notes that the specific Protestant use was apparently popularized by “The Fundamentals”, a series of pamphlets on the central doctrines of Christianity published in 1910–15 under the editorship of A. C. Dixon and R. A. Torrey.^[2] Dictionary.com calls the word an Americanism, first used of the Protestant movement that arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in reaction to modernism.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Strict adherence to the doctrines held to be fundamental to Christianity: 1842, in the Catholic Telegraph.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED began the word with 1923,^[8] Etymonline dates the religious sense to 1920,^[7] Merriam-Webster to 1922,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1920–25.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word became current in the United States in the early 1920s as the name of a theologically conservative Protestant movement that insisted on the inerrancy of Scripture and its literal interpretation;^[3][9][2] the American Heritage Dictionary describes it as an organized, militant Evangelical movement opposed to liberalism and secularism.^[9] Etymonline links the movement with William Jennings Bryan, among others, and suggests that the original idea was that of "fundamental truths".^[7] The word was soon applied outside religion to strict adherence to the basic principles of any doctrine or discipline (1922),^[2] and by 1925 it was used of similar movements in other religions, especially Islam;^[2] the revised OED antedates the Islamic sense, which the 1989 edition first recorded in 1957.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 1842 – strict adherence to doctrines held to be fundamental to Christianity, especially the inerrancy of Scripture.^[2]
• 1922 – in non-religious contexts, strict adherence to the basic principles of a doctrine or discipline.^[2]
• 1925 – strict adherence to traditional doctrines in other religions, especially Islam.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often capitalized) A conservative movement in American Protestantism, arising in the early 20th century, that stresses the literal interpretation and inerrancy of the Bible; also, the beliefs of this movement.^{[3][10][9][11]}
2. Strict adherence to the traditional orthodox doctrines of any religion, especially Islam.^[11][2]
3. Rigid adherence to the basic principles of any theory, doctrine or discipline: market fundamentalism.^{[11][9][2][1]}

Word family

• fundamentalist
• fundamentalistic
• antifundamentalism

Related words

• fundamental
• fundament
• found
• foundation

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 m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins