matérialisme

The philosophical term emerged in the seventeenth century, built on Latin materialis (of or relating to matter), from materia (matter, stuff, timber). Materia itself likely comes from mater (mother) — matter as the mother-stuff from which things are made. The word was used by Robert Boyle in the 1660s and by Leibniz in 1702 (the same text where he coined 'idealism') to name the opposing view: everything that exists is physical.

Ancient materialism predates the word. Democritus of Abdera, around 400 BCE, argued that reality consists of atoms (atoma, indivisible particles) moving through void. Epicurus refined the theory. Lucretius wrote De Rerum Natura around 55 BCE, laying out an atomistic, materialist worldview in Latin verse. The idea that nothing exists beyond matter is old. The label is relatively new.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed dialectical materialism in the mid-nineteenth century, arguing that material conditions — economics, production, class relations — determine consciousness, not the other way around. This was a direct inversion of Hegel's idealism. Historical materialism became the theoretical foundation of Marxism and shaped the political history of the twentieth century. The philosophical term became a political program.

The popular meaning — materialism as consumerism, as valuing possessions over experiences — appeared in the nineteenth century and now dominates common usage. A materialistic person cares about money and objects. The philosophical materialist cares about the nature of reality. The two meanings run in parallel, occasionally colliding in undergraduate essays.