suddenism
English
Etymology
sudden + -ism
Noun
suddenism (plural suddenisms)
- A tendency for processes to occur suddenly rather than gradually.
- 1864 August 1, G. Chichester Oxenden, “Letter to Charles Darwin”, in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Volume 12, Cambridge University Press, published 2001, page 294:
- In regard to our Dog-hole of an Earth, my own Conviction is that the great Law of Nature is "Graduality" & not "Suddenism", & that the Cataclysms which have disturbed our Crust are but the Exceptions which prove the Rule itself—
- 1979, Michael Thompson, Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value, 2nd edition, Pluto Books, published 2017, page 222:
- Instead of gradualism, a lot of tradition and a little change, we find we have suddenism, no tradition and all change.
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- (Buddhism) The achievement of sudden enlightenment.
- 1983, Luis O. Gómez, “The Direct and Gradual Approaches of Zen Master Mahāyāna: Fragments of the Teachings of Mo-ho-yen”, in Robert M. Gimello and Peter N. Gregory, editor, Studies in Ch'an and Hua-yen, University of Hawaii Press, page 96:
- Unqualified suddenism is as impossible to maintain as unqualified gradualism.
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Antonyms
- gradualism