"Is Collectionism a word in English?" Topic

It's been used in a post directed at me on another forum and I found mention of it in other sentences via Google, but it's not the dictionary, neither online nor in my American Heritage Third Edition.

I don't think it is currently. But if enough people start using it, it will be.

What's it supposed to mean?

Science fiction fans used to recognize 'completism' as a mental illness. Completism is the compulsion to collect every obscure publication of an author, or every issue of an obscure publication, or in extreme cases, at least one copy of everything ever published anywhere. I have known victims and completism is no myth.

I don't think there is. Maybe they are trying to say Collectivism? Its an example of people knowing the rules about creating words, but not knowing there there is already a word in use for it. I know there is a famous quote by Dubya doing this, but I can't remember it.
One example of this I I have seen online is someone using the term specialism They obviously have never heard the word specialty.

From the D&D forums, my response to Rustmonster and Nelielh's response to my response:
link

Condottiere: So what if someone wanted to purchase OOP material, like the Chainmail Core Rulebook, which was never published in book form? Sucks for me? How about the many quality 2nd Edition items which command ridiculously high prices on feeBay? Sucks for me? Go and re-think what you have said…

Nelielh: Sorry for you, but yes … but after all collectionism is an expensive mania. And not a WoTC problem, if they want to support only 4th they have full authority to do so.

I considered the word made up, til I Googled, and most of the instances relate to the mental condition. I've responded to the arse in kind, and would've dragged out Hussey v. Hofschroer, but can't stand the whole thing, even if it's now a precedent.

It's a $3 USD word replacing the 2¢ "collecting."

I thought so at first, but then leaned towards it being a backdoor insult. I probably overreacted, but the person's being a jerk.

NO. It is not a word.

Simple answer.

It's not in the OED, and if it's not in the OED…

Language changes. Lots of specific things can be described using different words. Equally, made up words do become 'legitimate' – it's just a matter of how commonly accepted they become in their own area.

Names are the same – one example: Wendy. The name didn't exist until it was 'invented' for Peter Pan. Anyone out there claim it isn't a 'proper' name?

Of course language changes and I do agree about the legitimization of made-up words, but the chance of the latter happening is extremely rare. More likely it's the concoction of someone too lazy or conceited to properly use the language and appropriate words.

In this instance what Nelielh said was meant as a putdown, he problem's trying to determine if he/she happened to be lazy or in fact outright insulting me. Said person is back and just as insulting in another post, albeit with poor syntax and spelling*.

*someone might say English isn't his/her first language, but being as there are many in the same boat who have a better grasp of grammar than native speakers, and considering this is a forum, excluding everyone's occasional mistake, I'd say this smacks of laziness.

I think laziness is probably a major factor in language changing. probable examples would include a lot of American spellings of English words, ie color, thru, program (interesting – the spell check on this thing is American rather than English English – it accepted color and program, but not thru!). Having said that, in this specific case I would agree with you.

When said user started using the acronym STFO as advice, probably to get round the censor, I reported the . Some of my posts were deleted, especially the one where I berated him/her for the rudeness, but it was worth it.