English
figurism
From figure + -ism.
Formed from figure + -ism
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- ‘to mold, knead’
Latin fingō ‘to form, shape’
Latin figūra ‘form, shape’
Old French figure
Middle English figure ‘shape’
English figure
Today it means
noun An intellectual movement of Jesuit missionaries at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, whose participants viewed the I Ching as a prophetic book containing the mysteries of Christianity, and prioritized working with the Qing Emperor (rather than with the Chinese literati) as a way of promoting Christianity in China.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / figurism