PACIFICISM OR PACIFISM ?
SIR, After consulting twelve reputable dictionaries, two encyclo-
• paedias, the large technical English-French French-English dictionary (Bellows') and the recognised leading weekly of the movement (Peace News), I would politely re-affirm that the vocation of a pacifist is still pacifism, not pacificism. My edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica mentions the word once only, in the following phrase occurring in their article on the word " Peace ": " . . the Pacifists were unable to raise their voices."—Yours faithfully, [The entry in the Concise Oxford Dictionary gives both forms, pacificism and pacifism, but adds very justly " the fism, fist, forms are barbarous, but usual." They are barbarous because in a word derived from pacem and facio there can be no justification for the dropping the ftc syllable which represents the verb.—ED., The Spectator.]
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