Cultural Watch

Word of the Day- futilitarian

(DICTIONARY.COM)

futilitarian / fyoo-til-i-tair-ee-uhn /

DEFFINITION

noun

A person who believes that human hopes are vain, and human strivings unjustified.

adjective

Believing that human hopes are vain, and human strivings unjustified.

CITATION

A lot of artists in America tend to be self-deprecating futilitarians , because we’ve grown up in a culture in which art doesn’t matter except, occasionally, as a high-end investment. — Tim Kreider, “When Art Is Dangerous (or Not),” New York Times, January 10, 2015

ORIGIN

Futilitarian is a humorous blend of futile and utilitarian. The word was coined in scorn for the utilitarian philosophy for the jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and the philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill (1806-73). Futilitarian entered English in the 19th century.

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