singlism

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 8:22 PM, Laurence Horn  wrote:
>
> On Mar 8, 2013, at 8:01 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
> > http://goo.gl/jKS1Q
> >> "It's the bane of the single person's travel existence," said Bella
> >> DePaulo, a visiting professor of psychology at the University of
> >> California, Santa Barbara, who studies what she calls "singlism," or
> >> the ways in which single people are stereotyped and discriminated
> >> against (it's also the name of her most recent book).
>
> I wonder if she pronounces it as three syllables or four.  If the latter,
> which I suspect, shouldn't it be singleism?
>
> It's also a sort of odd word, as if it were based on "blackism",
> "poorism", "womanism", and "oldism" instead of "racism, "classism",
> "sexism", and "ageism".  Maybe she wants something like…well,
> "marital statusism"?  I see the problem.

"Maritalism" has been suggested from time to time:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2007/07/is-there-word-for-animosity-toward.html
http://daelicious.xanga.com/624470019/maritalism-and-the-single-pastor/
http://www.vdare.com/articles/democrats-recoil-from-gops-electoral-secret-marriage-plus-children

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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