speciesism (SPEE-shee-ziz-uhm, -see-ziz-uhm) noun The assumption of superiority of humans over other animal species, especially to justify their exploitation.
[Coined by psychologist Richard D. Ryder (born 1940) in 1973. From Latin species (appearance, kind, form), from specere (to look). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which is also the ancestor of such words as suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), espionage, despise, telescope, spectator, and spectacles.] "At one point in Darwin's voyage to South America, James Moore told me, the naturalist stopped in Brazil, where his blood ran cold to see slaves in manacles being tortured by Catholic traders. Darwin was enraged as a Christian, but also as a scientist, because he recognized that the slave trade relied on the false notion that slaves were a different, inferior and exploitable species. "Upon his return to England, Darwin extended the idea to the way people treated animals, an early precursor to Richard Dawkins's argument about speciesism. 'To say man is the pinnacle of creation and all things were created for him ... Darwin says that is the same arrogance we see in the slave master,' said Moore." Shankar Vedantam; Eden and Evolution; Washington Post; Feb 5, 2006. This newsletter is made possible in part by these sponsors: See a map of your word in the Visual Thesaurus. Wordsmith readers save 10%. Try it free! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?ad=aw&code=h7q "We love orijinz! hit of our dinner party - even the kids tried to get in on the fun! It's fast, fun, and so interesting." $14.95. http://entspire.com ............................................................................ Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. -William James, psychologist (1842-1910) Share the magic of words. Send a gift sub: http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html Remove, change, or subscribe address: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/speciesism.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/speciesism.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/speciesism.html This message was sent to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
