The quality or practice of being a Babbitt; unthinking conformity to social and commercial conventions, especially in business and middle-class culture.
Formed from Babbitt plus -ry, meaning 'behavior characteristic of.' The suffix -ry denotes practices or tendencies, similar to 'snobbery' or 'knavery,' making it the most accessible form of the Lewis critique.
English speakers loved this word so much it became standard vocabulary—major dictionaries included 'babbittry' by the 1930s, making it one of the most successful character-based social criticism terms ever created.
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