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English
Etymology
From literal + -ism.
Noun
literalism (usually uncountable, plural literalisms)
- Literal interpretation or understanding; adherence to the exact letter or precise significance, as in interpreting or translating.
1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 73:Elsewhere, the liturgiologists were said to have "disembowelled the language of the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible" and produced in its place "the bland literalisms of Series 3 and the ASB[.]"
- (art) The style of art portraying a subject as literally and accurately as possible.
2015, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruce H. Kirmmse, K. Brian Söderquist, Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 2: Journals EE-KK, →ISBN:The two main forms of literalism are ergism and orthodoxy.
Translations
literal interpretation or understanding; adherence to the exact letter or precise significance, as in interpreting or translating
See also
Further reading
- “literalism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “literalism”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “literalism”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.