[f. FORMUL-A + -ISM. Cf. next.] Adherence to or dependence upon formulas; also, a system of formulas.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 312. Heroism was gone forever; Triviality, Formulism and Commonplace were come forever.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., II. viii. § 51. The unfortunate love of systematizing, which gradually degenerated into every species of contemptible formulism.
1881. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XII. 603/1. The whole of this complex theory is ruled by a mathematical formulism of triad, hebdomad, &c.
