"When it comes to -isms there isn't a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing, universally agreed definition, or even agreement on the fact that there isn't a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing, universally agreed definition of the -ism in question. Whether it be realism, relativism, conservatism, liberalism, idealism, empiricism, communism, capitalism, fascism, feminism, gnosticism, aestheticism, asceticism, athleticism, mysticism, mesmerism, masochism, modernism, marxism, malapropism, or any other '-ism' that those mad for macaronicism, liable to lexiphanicism or smitten by sesquipedalianism are inclined to conjugate, the only thing that everyone knows for certain is that there is no certainty about the thing everyone 'knows.' The ism isn't." --Stephen Brown, et al., Romancing the Market (1998), via WWFTD.
"When it comes to -isms there isn't a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing, universally agreed definition, or even agreement on the fact that there isn't a single, satisfactory, all-encompassing, universally agreed definition of the
-ism in question. Whether it be realism, relativism, conservatism, liberalism, idealism, empiricism, communism, capitalism, fascism, feminism, gnosticism, aestheticism, asceticism, athleticism, mysticism, mesmerism, masochism, modernism, marxism, malapropism, or any other '-ism' that those mad for macaronicism, liable to lexiphanicism or smitten by sesquipedalianism are inclined to conjugate, the only thing that everyone knows for certain is that there is no certainty about the thing everyone 'knows.' The ism isn't."
--Stephen Brown, et al., Romancing the Market (1998), via WWFTD.