Dictionary entry

Philistinism

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Phi‐lis″tin‐ism (?), n. The condition, character, aims, and habits of the class called Philistines. See Philistine, 3. Carlyle.

On the side of beauty and taste, vulgarity; on the side of morals and feeling, coarseness; on the side of mind and spirit, unintelligence, — this is Philistinism. M. Arnold.