Egotism
Etymology
From Latin "ego" (I) plus "-ism," coined in the early 18th century (the extra "t" is an intrusive addition). Joseph Addison helped popularize it in "The Spectator" as a name for the tiresome overuse of "I" in conversation and writing.
noun · /EE-guh-tiz-um/
The habit of talking or thinking excessively about oneself; inflated self-importance.
What it names
The socially grating trait of the person who makes everything about themselves — an excess of self-reference, not a philosophy.
Example
The memoir drowned in egotism — three hundred pages in which no one else ever quite came into focus.
Related idea
Egotism is the inflated habit of self-reference and self-praise; "egoism" is the ethical doctrine that self-interest is the right basis for action — one is a personality flaw, the other a moral theory. Both differ from clinical narcissism, a deeper disorder of the self.
See also