a. and sb. [A humorous coinage, f. FUTILITY, after UTILITARIAN.]
A. adj. Devoted to futility or futile pursuits. B. sb. One who is devoted to futility.
1827. Southey, in C. C. Southey, Life & Corr., V. 290. If the Utilitarians would reason and write like you, they would no longer deserve to be called Futilitarians. Ibid. (1834), Doctor, xxxv. (1848), 85. The whole race of Political Economists, our Malthusites, Benthamites, Utilitarians, or Futilitarians.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. Engish, 19, note. The word international, introduced by the immortal Bentham, and Mr. Carlyle’s gigmanity,—to coin which, by the way, it was necessary to invent facts,—are significantly characteristic of the utilitarian philanthropist and of the futilitarian misanthropist, respectively.
