misoneism

From Italian misoneismo (after Cesare Lombroso). Equivalent to miso- +‎ neo- +‎ -ism.

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɪsəˈniː.ɪzəm/, /ˌmaɪsəˈniː.ɪzəm/

misoneism (usually uncountable, plural misoneisms)

1. The distrust or hatred of new ideas or things.

   Synonyms: neophobia, neophobism

   Antonyms: neophilia, neophilism, philoneism

   • 1923 May, “Pornolagny and Realism”, in The Urologic and Cutaneous Review, volume XXVII, number 5, St. Louis, Mo.: Urologic and Cutaneous Press, →OCLC, page 322, column 2:

     In politics this type of philistine has more than once denounced the "golden rule" as an "iridescent dream" of a lunatic. Such philistinism pleases the misoneism of the mediocre, whence the enthusiasm over platitudes and the reign of the philistine in newspaper art, literature and science.

   • 1974, Bruno de Finetti, translated by Antonio Machí and Adrian Smith, Theory of Probability, volume 1, New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1.2.2:

     Why do I myself not also conform to the introduction of such developments into the calculus of probability? Is it a question of incomprehension? Of misoneism? Of affectation in preferring to use the tools of the craftsman in an era of automation which allows mass production even of brains – both electronic and human?

   • 1990, Thomas Pynchon, Vineland:

     What really got his attention was the Lombrosian concept of “misoneism”. Radicals, militants, revolutionaries, however they styled themselves, all sinned against this deep organic human principle, which Lombroso had named after the Greek for “hatred of anything new.”

• misoneist

Borrowed from French misonéisme.

misoneism n (uncountable)

1. misoneism