pacifism

Etymology

It is borrowed from French pacifisme,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from pacifique (“pacific”) and -isme.^[4][3] The French word is recorded from 1901, with an isolated example in 1845,^[7] and Etymonline says it was apparently coined by Émile Arnaud, a writer against war in France.^[6] The revised OED instead takes it as formed from English pacific + -ism after the French word,^[7] and the Oxford Dictionary of English derives the French word from pacifier (“to pacify”).^[8][9] French pacifique is from Latin pācificus (“peace-making”), from pāx (“peace”), the source of peace, and -ficus (“making”).^[7][6] Klein explained pacifism as a contraction of pacificism by haplology.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Belief in peaceful methods as a feasible and desirable alternative to war: 1902, in the Proceedings of the 10th Universal Peace Congress.^[7] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged give the same year,^[3][4] and Dictionary.com dates it 1905–10.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the international peace movement of the early 20th century, especially for the rejection of war in international affairs.^[6][5] Pacifist followed, which Etymonline dates to 1903 and Barnhart to 1906, from pacifiste;^[6][3] the OED has an isolated earlier use from 1717.^[7] The longer pacificism appeared soon after (1908 in the OED, 1904 in Etymonline, 1910 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged).^[7][6][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the narrower sense of refusing to bear arms on moral or religious grounds.^[4]

Timeline

• 1902 – the belief that peaceful methods are a feasible alternative to war.^[7][3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The belief that war and violence of any kind are unjustifiable ways of settling disputes, and the refusal to take part in them: His pacifism kept him out of the army.^[12][4][7]
2. Specifically, the refusal to bear arms on moral or religious grounds.^[4]
3. The belief that international disputes can be settled by arbitration instead of war.^[12][7]

Word family

• pacifist
• pacifistic
• pacifistically
• antipacifism

Related words

• pacific
• pacificism
• pacify
• peace

Usage notes

Fowler wrote in 1926 that pacificism was the better-formed word, but that it had little chance of displacing pacifism.^[6] The two have since drifted apart: pacificism came to mean advocacy of peaceful policy as a first resort, for moderates who accept defensive force until war can be abolished, and in 1957 the historian A. J. P. Taylor suggested pacificist for them.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins