atticism means attachment to, collaboration with, favouring of, or siding with Athens or Athenians, especially in the context of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.E.).
atticism is pronounced /ˈatɪsɪzm/.
Why “atticism” is a great word
Atticism is a refined, classicizing style or idiom modeled on the pure, elegant dialect of Classical Athens. From the Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ττῐκῐσμός (attikismós, 'Attic style or idiom'), from ᾰ̓ττῐκῐ́ζω (attikízō, 'to side with the Athenians, to speak Attic'), from Ἀττικός (Attikós, 'of Attica, Athenian'). Unlike 'Asianism,' with its flamboyant, emotionally ornate cadences, or the pragmatic, common 'Koine' that followed, Atticism is a conscious, partisan return to a prior linguistic ideal. It is the cool marble of a perfectly balanced period, the spare vocabulary of a philosopher-statesman, and the echo of a vanished polis in the mouth of a Roman orator—the melancholic pursuit of a lost clarity in an increasingly baroque world.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ττῐκῐσμός (ăttĭkĭsmós). By surface analysis, Attic + -ism.
noun
- Attachment to, collaboration with, favouring of, or siding with Athens or Athenians, especially in the context of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.E.).“The ſame Summer, the Thebans demoliſhed the walles of the Theſpians, laying Atticiſme to their charge.”
- The prestige dialect of Classical Greek, as spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica (chiefly Athens) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.; Attic Greek.; The enduring rhetorical movement, begun in the 1st century B.C.E., whose members strove to emulate the style of the best Attic orators of that Classical period; especially in contrast with Asianism or Hellenism. (Its leading early proponent, Dionysius of Halicarnassus [c. 60–p. 7 B.C.E.], identified Lysias [c. 445–380 B.C.E.] as “the
- The prestige dialect of Classical Greek, as spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica (chiefly Athens) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.; Attic Greek.; The enduring rhetorical movement, begun in the 1st century B.C.E., whose members strove to emulate the style of the best Attic orators of that Classical period; especially in contrast with Asianism or Hellenism. (Its leading early proponent, Dionysius of Halicarnassus [c. 60–p. 7 B.C.E.], identified Lysias [c. 445–380 B.C.E.] as “the
- The prestige dialect of Classical Greek, as spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica (chiefly Athens) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.; Attic Greek.; An expression or idiom characteristic of or peculiar to Attic Greek, especially an elegant and refined, if grammatically irregular, usage.“By the Cardinals own confeſsion, this Agapetus liued at Conſtantinople in Iuſtinians time: where it was a great matter for him, no doubt, in ſo long time, to learn to make ſuch a Greek booke as this is; which yet for the ſtile and Atticiſmes, comes a great deale ſhort of Baronius commendation.”
- The prestige dialect of Classical Greek, as spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica (chiefly Athens) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.; Attic Greek.; A refined felicity or well-turned phrase, especially one deemed ungrammatical. (In Newcome, aposiopesis, dislocation, and inverse attraction, respectively.)“There while they acted, and overacted, among other young ſcholars, I was a ſpectator; they thought themſelves gallant men, and I thought them fools, they made ſport, and I laught, they miſpronounc’t and I miſlik’t, and to make up the atticiſme, they were out, and I hiſt.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- athenianism 83% match — The veneration of the culture of ancient Athens and the attempt to emulate some of its characteristics. vs atticism →
- asianism 79% match — An Ancient Greek rhetorical tendency that arose in the third century BC, favouring emotion, bombast and wordplay over austere formality, and distinguished by the use of a prose rhythm. vs atticism →
- archaistic 78% match — Pertaining to an archaist; deliberately archaic, old-fashioned in an affected way. vs atticism →
- acropolis 78% match — A promontory (usually fortified with a citadel) forming the hub of many Grecian cities, and around which many were built for defensive purposes before and during the classical period; compare Acropolis. vs atticism →
- laconophilia 78% match — love for or obsession with Sparta vs atticism →
- grecism 77% match — A word or idiom of the Greek language used in another language, especially for literary effect. vs atticism →
- corinthian 77% match — Of or relating to Corinth. vs atticism →
- medize 77% match — To side with the Persians; to be loyal to the Persian Empire rather than Greeks. vs atticism →