literalism

English

Etymology

From literal +‎ -ism.

Noun

literalism (usually uncountable, plural literalisms)

1. Literal interpretation or understanding; adherence to the exact letter or precise significance, as in interpreting or translating.
   • 1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 73:

     Elsewhere, the liturgiologists were said to have "disembowelled the language of the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible" and produced in its place "the bland literalisms of Series 3 and the ASB[.]"

3. (art) The style of art portraying a subject as literally and accurately as possible.
   • 2015, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruce H. Kirmmse, K. Brian Söderquist, Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 2: Journals EE-KK, →ISBN:

     The two main forms of literalism are ergism and orthodoxy.

Related terms

• literalist

Translations

literal interpretation or understanding; adherence to the exact letter or precise significance, as in interpreting or translating

• Dutch: letterlijkheid f
• Finnish: kirjaimellinen tulkinta, literalismi
• French: littéralisme (fr) m
• Polish: dosłowność (pl) f
• Russian: буквали́зм (ru) m (bukvalízm)

See also

• letter of the law
• metaphrase (translation theory)
• textualism
• to the letter

Further reading

• “literalism”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “literalism”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “literalism”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.