owlism

Noun

owlism (uncountable)

1. Affected or pretentious wisdom; pompous dullness; bombast.
   • Their Owlisms, Vulturisms, to an incredible extent, will disappear by and by, their Heroisms only remaining, and the helmet be reduced to something like the size of the head, we hope!1895, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, and: Heroes and Hero-worship, page 114
   • But when questioned as to the How? of this splendid proposal, they either belittle the questioner or resort to some vague owlism about the "womb of time."1915, Benedict Elder, A Study in Socialism, page 274
2. Owlishness; pompous pseudo-intellectual nature or behavior.
   • If the happiness of men depended as much upon the efficiency of agencies for the "mental discipline" and "culture" of women as it does upon their housewifely ability, the owlism would have been punched out of a score of very respectable studies long ago.1870, Kansas State Agricultural College, Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, Catalogue, page 15
   • Rather than be found guilty of Owlism, let me venture on a bit and expand on my broad thesis of information management .1966, Mountain-plains Library Quarterly - Volumes 11-12, page 6
3. The identification with and/or worship of owls.
   • The book discusses the habits and rituals of these people-owls and explores the nature of <<owlism>>, which exposes the archaic and occult roots of the 20th century totalitarian systems .2006, Михаил Епштейн, Великая совь, page 267
   • The book describes a Northern people who believe the Great Owl to be their totemic ancestor, and explores the customs and rituals of these nocturnal owl-people, and the very nature of "owlism,” an archaic and occult source of twentieth-century ideocratic systems.2021, Mikhail Epstein, Ideas Against Ideocracy
4. Night-owlism.
   • Her owlism and his larkism are mild forms of circadian-rhythm glitches known as delayed- and advanced- sleep phase syndromes.1994, Shape - Volume 13, Issues 9-12, page 109