Etymology

localism

loc·al·i·sm
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Today it means: Attachment to or preference for a particular local place, especially the place where one lives; hence, feelings, opinions, or policies which emphasize or focus on local phenomena; (countable) an instance of this. Full definition →

First used 1977
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The story

From local (adjective) + -ism (suffix forming names of tendencies of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to classes or groups of persons), originally modelled after French localisme. Sense 3.2 (“approach to understanding linguistic expressions in terms of movement and position”) was coined by the British linguist John Lyons (1932–2020) in his book Semantics (1977).

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1977 An approach to understanding linguistic expressions in terms of movement and position (sometimes abstract; for example, one who is hungry is said to be in a notional "space" of hunger).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.