Settlerism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An ideology extolling the virtue of bettering oneself by becoming a settler in an undeveloped new country. uncountable
"This informal settlerism echoed some elements of a well-known English folk Utopianism: 'a vision, let us call it "Merrie England", in which squire, parson and people were locked together in an embrace of authority, deference and mutual dependency.'"
- 2 Group identification among settlers (as opposed to indigenous people or imported slaves), coupled with an ideology of freedom and social participation that applies exclusively to members of that group. uncountable
"Class contradictions in the U.S., in time, came to be defined largely in the context of race and settlerism."
Example
More examples"This informal settlerism echoed some elements of a well-known English folk Utopianism: 'a vision, let us call it "Merrie England", in which squire, parson and people were locked together in an embrace of authority, deference and mutual dependency.'"
Etymology
From settler + -ism.
More for "settlerism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.