Why “tartuffism” is a great word
TARTUFFISM — [Noun] The feigned, performative piety of a religious hypocrite. From the French name Tartuffe, the hypocritical protagonist of Molière's 1664 comedy 'Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur', combined with the English suffix -ism (denoting a practice or doctrine). Unlike piety, which is a genuine, inward devotion, or sincerity, which is a congruence of thought and action, tartuffism is a knowing act of theatrical fraud. It is the sanctimonious lowering of eyes that are secretly calculating, the ostentatious denunciation of pleasures one privately indulges, and the precisely displayed, well-thumbed scripture left open on a desk of worldly appointments—a pantomime of virtue where the soul's emptiness is hidden behind a well-rehearsed curtain of devotion, a theater of faith where the only true god is the self.