The present world; the present state or stage of existence, as distinguished from another, esp. a future one. (Cf. OTHER WORLD.)
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xvi. 8. Suno ðisses woruldes [c. 1000 Ags. Gosp. ðisse worulde bearn].
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 231. He cumð an ende þisser wrld.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 7. Þeos world is whilende.
1382. Wyclif, John xvi. 11. The prince of this world is now demyd.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XIII. vii. 621. They alle shalle neuer mete more in thys world.
1583. J. Munden, in J. B. Wainwright, Two Eng. Mart. (C.T.S.), 24. Biddinge you farewell for ever in this worlde.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 332. The perishing possessions of this World.
1883. Miss Braddon, Gold. Calf, xiv. What higher office can a man hold in this world than to form the minds of the rising generation?
b. attrib. Pertaining to this world; mundane.
1889. J. Titsworth, in Chicago Advance, 7 Feb. [To] appreciate the this-world sphere of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Hence (nonce-wds.) This-worldian, a man of this world, a worldling; This-worldism, This-worldliness, devotion to the things of this world.
1830. Coleridge, Ch. & St. (1839), 77. Those … that separate the Christian from the this-worldian.
1872. Howells, Wedd. Journ. (1892), 269. A spiritual-worldliness which was the clarified likeness of this-worldliness.
1883. W. M. Adamson, in Evang. Union Worthies, 319. This-worldism ignored God, if it did not deny His existence.
1887. Pall Mall G., 19 Oct., 2/1. The Need of ‘This-worldliness.’… Evangelical Christians have been too often guilty of ‘other-worldliness.’
