rare. [f. L. tū thou + -ISM, after egoism, egotism.] A form of expression involving the use of the pronoun thou, or implying reference to a second person; also, in Ethics, primary regard to the interests of another person or persons (opp. to EGOISM 2, EGOTISM 2); in Philos., ‘the doctrine that all thought is addressed to a second person, or to one’s future self as a second person’ (Cent. Dict., 1891; cf. EGOISM 1).
1796. Coleridge, Watchman, 9 March, 38. Omitting the long preambles … and the whole parade of egotisms and tuisms: we shall select from each speech [etc.]. Ibid. (1809–10), Friend (1818), I. iv. 36. For one piece of egotism that presents itself under its own honest bare face of ‘I myself I,’ there are fifty that steal out in the mask of tuisms and ille-isms.
1824. Byron, Juan, XVI. xiii. To hail her with the apostrophe—‘O thou!’ Of amatory egotism the Tuism.
1884. J. Rae, Contemp. Socialism, 124. Feuerbach’s peculiar ethical principle … has been well termed Tuism, to distinguish it from Egoism.
Hence Tuistic a. [see -ISTIC], of the nature of tuism.
1880. H. Bradshaw in Life (1888), 292. You should … avoid … the tuistic form of letter.
