aspheterism

Meanings

nounaspheterism (uncountable)

datedrareuncountableThe view that all property should be in common ownership and that no individual should benefit from private possession.First known use 1794
A more free-wheeling verbal invention of [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge's, "Aspheterism," meant the absence of private property. "Aspheterism" would vanquish materialism and help raise a generation of children untainted by corrupt values.
2015, Sheldon Spear, “French and British Refugees on the Susquehanna”, in Pennsylvania Histories: Two Hundred Years of Personalities and Events 1750–1950, Lanham, Md.: Lehigh University Press; Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, →ISBN, section B (Events), page 80
3 more examples
We preached Pantisocracy and Aspheterism everywhere. These, Tom, are two new words, the first signifying the equal government of all, and the other the generalisation of individual property; words well understood in the city of Bristol.
Robert Southey ([1849?]), chapter III, in Charles Cuthbert Southey, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 75
In short he [Robert Southey] was always guided by his sympathies; and as he was never in his hottest days of Aspheterism anything like a consistent and reasoned Radical, so in his most rancorous days of reaction he never was a consistent and reasoned Tory.
1895 March, “Robert Southey”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume LXXI, number 425, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 351
"Aspheterism," then, the belief that only an abolition of private property would bring about the desired moral transformation, lies at the very heart of Pantisocracy. [Robert] Southey and [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge believed that once people returned to sharing a "common ground," they would no longer feel envy or a need to compete. […] But "aspheterism" was not the only milestone on their path to universal philanthropy; it was accompanied by ideas about improving everyday interpersonal behaviour.
2016, Björn Bosserhoff, “Almost Susquehanna”, in Radical Contra-Diction: Coleridge, Revolution, Apostasy, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Catching Fire: A Politico-biographical Account, 1792–96), page 64
Synonyms: communism

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe view that all property should be in common ownership and that no individual should benefit from private possession.

Similar

communism

Also see

communism

Origin

Ancient Greekᾰ̓-
Englishaspheterism

From Ancient Greek ᾰ̓- (ă-, the alpha privative, a suffix forming words having a sense opposite to the word or stem to which it is attached) + σφέτερος (sphéteros, “theirs, their own”) (from σφεῖς (spheîs, “they; themselves”) + -τερος (-teros, suffix forming adjectives expressing some notion of contrast)) + -ism, influenced by σφετερισμός (spheterismós, “usurpation”). The word was coined by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) in a 1794 letter to fellow poet Robert Southey (1774–1843).

More words from Ancient Greek

Full word history & related roots →