Etymology

spiritualism

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Today it means: A doctrine, opposing materialism, that claims transcendency of the divine being, the altogether spiritual character of reality and the value of inwardness of consciousness. Full definition →

English spiritual ← Middle English spiritual ← Old French spiritue
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spiritualism · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)peys-der.?
  2. Latinspīrō
  3. Latinspīritus
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  6. Late Latinspīrituālis
  7. Old Frenchspiritue
  8. Middle Englishspiritual
  9. Englishspiritual
  10. English todayspiritualism

From spiritual + -ism. In Allan Kardec's book The Spirits Book (1857) (Le Livre des Esprits in the original French), in which a distinction between spiritism and spiritualism is defined.

Spiritualism · noun2

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)peys-der.?
  2. Latinspīrō
  3. Latinspīritus
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  6. Late Latinspīrituālis
  7. Old Frenchspiritue
  8. Middle Englishspiritual
  9. Englishspiritual
  10. English todaySpiritualism

From spiritual + -ism.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.