different between vanity vs materialism

English

Etymology

va(i)n +? -ity, from Middle English vanite, from Old French vanité, from Latin v?nitas, from v?nus, whence English vain. Doublet of vanitas.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?væ.n?.ti/

Noun

vanity (countable and uncountable, plural vanities)

1. That which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value, use or profit.
2. Excessive pride in or admiration of one's own abilities, appearance or achievements.
3. A dressing table used to apply makeup, preen, and coif hair. The table is normally quite low and similar to a desk, with drawers and one or more mirrors on top. Either a chair or bench is used to sit upon.
4. A washbasin installed into a permanently fixed storage unit, used as an item of bathroom furniture.
5. Emptiness. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (obsolete) Any idea, theory or statement that is without foundation.

   It is a vanity to say that if two stones are dropped from a tower, the heavier will experience the greater acceleration.

Synonyms

• conceit
• egotism
• narcissism
• pride
• See also Thesaurus:arrogance

Derived terms

• vanity case
• vanity item

Related terms

• vain

Translations

Further reading

• vanity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• vanity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From French matérialisme; surface etymology is material +? -ism.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /m??t??i?l?z?m/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??t???i?l?z?m/
• Hyphenation: ma?te?ri?al?ism

Noun

materialism (countable and uncountable, plural materialisms)

1. Constant concern over material possessions and wealth; a great or excessive regard for worldly concerns.
   • 2010, Nuala O'Faolain, A More Complex Truth, "An Ugly Little War":

     We accept that a third of the population live on the poverty line. We accept that only a handful of the most exceptional of the children of the poor will make it through to a third-level education. We accept massive examples of greed and dishonesty in public life. We except the values of materialism. What do we expect then—to be left un-harassed, we who have all the privileges?

2. (philosophy) The philosophical belief that nothing exists beyond what is physical.
   • 1814, Joseph S. Buckminster, The Sermons by the Late Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, Sermon I:

     The result of the labours of philosophy appeared to be a total scepticism on the most important subjects of hu man duty and expectation. The irregular fears of a future state had been supplanted by the materialism of Epicurus; and this system—if system it may be called, which left them without a God, a providence, a morality, or a retribution—was the fashionable philosophy of the more cultivated classes.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture I:

     Medical materialism seems indeed a good appellation for the too simple-minded system of thought which we are considering. ... All such mental over-tensions, it says, are, when you come to the bottom of the matter, mere affairs of diathesis (auto-intoxications most probably), due to the perverted action of various glands which physiology will yet discover.
3. (obsolete, rare) Material substances in the aggregate; matter.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of A. Chalmers to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (philosophy): physicalism
• (philosophy): philosophical materialism

Antonyms

• (philosophy): idealism

Derived terms

• new materialism
• philosophical materialism
• scientific materialism
• speculative materialism
• transcendental materialism

Related terms

• materialistic
• materialist

Translations

See also

• idealism
• physicalism

Further reading

• materialism in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• materialism in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "materialism" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 197.

Romanian

Etymology

From French matérialisme

Noun

materialism n (uncountable)

1. materialism

Declension

Swedish

Etymology

materiell +? -ism

Noun

materialism c

1. materialism

Declension

Related terms

• materialist
• materialistisk