[a. F. socialisme (1832), or independently f. SOCIAL a. + -ISM. See also next.
The early history of the word is somewhat obscure. The first use of F. socialisme appears to have been in the Globe of 13 Feb. 1832, where it was employed in contrast to personnalité. In its modern sense it is variously claimed for Leroux or Reybaud, writing within three or four years after this. A different account, assigning the priority of this use to England, is given in the Encycl. Brit. (1887), XXII. 205; according to this the word originated in 1835 in the discussions of a society founded by Robert Owen.]
1. A theory or policy of social organization that aims at or advocates the ownership and control of the means of production, capital, land, property, etc., by the community as a whole, and their administration or distribution in the interests of all.
Freq. with initial capital.
Christian socialism, a doctrine or theory, promulgated about 1850 by F. D. Maurice, C. Kingsley, T. Hughes, and others, advocating a form of socialism on a Christian basis.
1839. J. Mather (title), Socialism Exposed: or ‘The Book of the New Moral World’ Examined. Ibid., App. 34. To explain and expose what Robert Owen’s Socialism is.
1840. Quart. Rev., Dec., 180. The two great demons in morals and politics, Socialism and Chartism.
1863. Fawcett, Polit. Econ., II. i. 181. Socialism, as first propounded by Owen and Fourier, proposed that a society living together should share all the wealth produced.
1881. Stevenson, Virg. Puerisque, 89. I do not greatly pride myself on having outlived my belief in the fairy tales of Socialism.
2. A state of society in which things are held or used in common.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., VI. i. (1881), 188. We have passed out of the socialism of the tribal state.
