individualism

Etymology

It is formed from English individual + -ism,^[2][3][4][5] in some senses after French individualisme and German Individualismus.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the whole word from French individualisme.^[6] Individual is from Medieval Latin individuālis, from Latin indīviduus (“indivisible”), formed from in- (“not”) and dīviduus (“divisible”), from dīvidō (“to divide”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An uncommon or singular instance of something: 1797, in J. D. Burk's Bunker-Hill, a rare sense soon obsolete.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1815, in the sense "individuality".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The modern senses begin in 1827, when the word meant the habit of acting independently and pursuing one's own ends without regard to others,^[2][6][7] a meaning the Shorter Oxford equates with egoism.^[4] The political and economic sense, that individuals should act freely without collective or state interference, was modelled on French individualisme (1825)^[2] and first appears in H. Reeve's 1840 translation of Tocqueville's Democracy in America;^[2] Etymonline and the 1989 edition of the OED date this sense to 1851, in the writings of J. S. Mill, as the opposite of communism and socialism.^[3][7] The word also came to mean individual character (1847) and a personal peculiarity (1863),^[2][8] and, after German, a metaphysical doctrine that reality consists of separate individual things (1869) and a kind of symbiosis in biology (1897).^[2]

Timeline

• 1797 – a singular instance of something (obsolete).^[2]
• 1815 – individuality.^[3]
• 1827 – independent, self-reliant behaviour; pursuit of one's own aims.^[2][6]
• 1840 – the theory that individuals should act freely without state interference.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1851.^[3]
• 1847 – individual or distinctive character.^[2]
• 1863 – a personal peculiarity, an idiosyncrasy.^[2]
• 1869 – in philosophy, the doctrine that reality consists of individual entities.^[2]
• 1897 – in biology, a type of symbiosis.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The principle or habit of independent, self-reliant thought and action; pursuit of one's own aims: Her individualism made committee work difficult.^[8][6][2]
2. The social and economic doctrine that individuals should act freely without state interference; laissez-faire.^[8][2][6]
3. The ethical doctrine that the interests of the individual are or should be paramount; egoism.^[6][8]
4. Individual character; a personal quirk or idiosyncrasy.^[8][2]
5. In philosophy, the doctrine that only individual things exist or that reality is made up of separate individual entities.^[8][2]
6. In biology, a form of symbiosis in which the partners can no longer live apart.^[2]

Word family

• overindividualism
• superindividualism

Related words

• individuality
• individual
• rugged individualism

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins