last-wordism

English

Etymology

From last word +‎ -ism.

Noun

last-wordism (uncountable)

1. A tendency or attempt to have the last word in any argument, decision, or endeavor.
   • 1967, Sydney Clark, All the best in Hawaii, page 168:

     The restaurant-bar, serving American food, is a prime example of last-wordism. The entrance is embellished with lighted color photographs of a dozen or so major cities of the world, from San Francisco to Calcutta to Sydney, each with a big brass clock showing the time in that city.

   • 2010, Ross E. Davies, “The Last Word”, in The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, volume 229:

     The futility of last-wordism at the Court is reflected in the apparent shyness of past perpetrators: They do not make second attempts to get the last word.

   • 2013, Andrew Gordon, Paul Wilderson, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command, →ISBN:

     Sad to relate, Colomb responded to this trenchant corrective with a graceless three-column exercise in last-wordism, in The Times of September the 7th. Maurice Bourke, convalescing at Battenberg's Rhineland Schloss, had "never read such rot as Columbus has written.