Pronunciations (4)
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/ˈwɒz(ə)m/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈwʌz(ə)m/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈwʌz(ə)m/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/ˈwɑz(ə)m/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
Noun
A doctrine, ideology, rule, or theory that is no longer current or fashionable.
Usage- Humorous
- Examples
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More examples (3)
Progress is a PLAStic bag; / Come stick in your head and what AILS you will gag. / Gasping the BLUE-in-the-face blues. / When our propaganda spasms turn your isms into wasms, / We'll bag the earth in a PLAStic globe and disconnect your frontal lobe / With our gadget-pop Agitprop air-jet-hop think-no-more blues.
The nice thing about an ism, someone once observed, is how quickly it becomes a wasm. Some musical wasms – academic-wasm, for example, and its dependent varieties of modern-wasm and Serial-wasm – continue to linger on artificial life support, though, and continue to threaten the increasingly fragile classical ecosystem.
Dwight Eisenhower, a president not particularly remembered for his wit, once remarked that "all isms are wasms." He was presumably referring, rather presciently, to the largely forgotten isms that were once perceived as a threat to truth, justice, and the American way: Marxism, socialism, communism.