orientalism
orientalism noun: the tendency to represent eastern subjects, to assume stylistical characteristics original of the East, especially in 19th century Europe.
Noun (1)
orientalism (countable and uncountable, plural orientalisms)
- The tendency to represent eastern subjects, to assume stylistical characteristics original of the East, especially in 19th century Europe.
- Moreover, among the group that was associated with the short-lived Institut historique, of which Senancour was a member from 1834 to 1840, was Eugène Burnouf, the great orientalist, to whom much of the responsibility for the revived interest in orientalism of the mid-nineteenth century must be...1935, Iris Esther Robertson Sells, Matthew Arnold and France, London: Cambridge University Press, page 67
- An Eastern word, expression, or custom.
- The Scriptural style and the Scriptural language are not meant for one age, but for all ages. Its orientalisms will grow in the west; its archaisms will be found still young in the nineteenth century.1860, Tayler Lewis, The Divine Human in the Scriptures, New York: R. Carter and Brothers, page 117
- A patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies.
- Unlike the Americans, the French and the British—less so the Germans, Russians, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Swiss—have had a long tradition of what I shall be calling Orientalism, a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western...1978, Edward W. Said, Orientalism, New York: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 1
- But he [Robert Irwin] is more lucid and reliable when he sets out to demonstrate the complexity and diversity of Orientalism, to defend his profession from the charge of being a conscious or unconscious accomplice of empire, and to decry the damage done by those whose reading even of Orientalism...2007 March, Christopher Hitchens, “East is East”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN
Noun (2) capitalized: Orientalism
Orientalism (countable and uncountable, plural Orientalisms)
- Alternative letter-case form of orientalism.
orientalism meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Malay
orientalism in Hindi
- the tendency to represent eastern subjects
- प्राच्यवाद prācyavād
orientalism in Urdu
- the tendency to represent eastern subjects
- اِسْتِشْراق istiśrāq
orientalism in Arabic
- the tendency to represent eastern subjects
- اِسْتِشْراق istišrāq
orientalism in Malay
- the tendency to represent eastern subjects
- faham ketimuran, faham orientalis, orientalisme
More languagesFewer languages
- orientalism in Persian
- خاورگرایی xâvargarâyi
Forms of orientalism
| plural | orientalisms |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Orientalism |
| plural | Orientalisms |
Origin of orientalism
From French orientalisme, from oriental (“eastern, Oriental”). In the sense “patronizing Western attitude” popularized by Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism. Equivalent to Oriental + -ism.
Words formed from orientalism
Questions about orientalism
- What does orientalism mean?
- Orientalism means the tendency to represent eastern subjects, to assume stylistical characteristics original of the East, especially in 19th century Europe.
- What is orientalism in Hindi?
- Orientalism in Hindi is प्राच्यवाद (prācyavād). See Orientalism meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is orientalism?
- Orientalism is a noun.
- What is the plural of orientalism?
- The plural of orientalism is orientalisms.
Words near orientalism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: orientalism (page history and authors); Orientalism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-orientalism.wav.
Cite this entry: “orientalism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/orientalism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.