[f. prec. + -ISM.]
1. A verbal expression; a word or vocable.
1787. Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), I. 372. I always write in too much haste to pause for best possible verbalisms. Ibid. (1799), V. 207. This propensity has probably left several erroneous verbalisms in myself-revised sheets.
1837. Whittock, Compl. Bk. Trades, 390. With those instructions, and other verbalisms, that he acquires daily,… the apprentice may acquire a taste for the art.
1881. J. Russell, Haigs, xi. 308. Its quaint orthography and archaic verbalisms.
b. collect. Words, phrasing.
1800. Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), V. 285. It is not amongst our modern songs that the musical composer is to look for his happiest verbalism.
2. Predominance of what is merely verbal over reality or real significance.
1872. A. C. Fraser, Life Berkeley, ii. 28. His abhorrence of scholastic verbalism and empty abstractions.
1879. H. N. Hudson, Hamlet, Pref. p. xv. Our children must be continually drilled in a sort of microscopic verbalism.
1889. J. M. Robertson, Christ & Krishna, xii. 65. The rest is modern Talmudism—the ancient ‘demoniacal possession’ of verbalism over again.
