Holistic is probably not Wholistic because an author wanted to sound smart (lemmy.nowsci.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The author of Holism and Evolution, Jan Smuts, used the Greek word "holos" as the root of "holism" instead of "whole" (the book was English, and "whole" was commonplace). In later years, wholistic was coined, but never caught on. While there could be other reasons for the choice than making it sound more scientific, it sure seems to be the case.

This is one of those examples of the English language that annoys me.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/holistic

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

People often use Greek or Latin roots for new terms if they want them to be used internationally, without biasing usage to one language.

This was probably the case for Smuts, who was a committed internationalist and whose native language was Afrikaans rather than English.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Makes sense. Still annoying 😆

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I'd be leery of any risky adjacency to "whore" with a name like that too, though...

this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025

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