psittacismn.

1861 J. Heiton Castes Edinb. (ed. 3) iv. 49 The comparative freeness of the Scottish bench,..even when it descended to buffoonery or sheer psittacism, was somehow or another compatible with a greater amount of dignity of learning than our ermine exhibits [etc.].

1883 M. Chapman tr. P. A. R. Janet Theory of Morals iii. vi. 380 This habit of repeating formulas, the meaning of which is not present in the imagination, Leibnitz calls psittacism (talking like a parrot). He is fond of this expression, and even applies it to the belief of the majority of men in regard to the future life.

1896 A. G. Langley tr. G. W. Leibniz New Ess. Human Understanding ii. xxi. 196 All that they do think about it [sc. the future life] is but a psittacism, or gross and vain images after the Mahometan fashion, in which they themselves see little likelihood.

1904 Amer. Jrnl. Relig. Psychol. & Educ. May 107 Then followed monographs on psittacism and symbolic thought, heredity, and laughter.

1923 C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richards Meaning of Meaning x. 349 Psittacism is the use of words without reference.

1936 Amer. Speech 11 173/2 This procedure would reduce a science to the level of a fastidious psittacism—a blind alley leading to the dead end of a circumscribed habit.

1995 Classical Rev. 45 114 It has been repeated by followers. And there is no doubt that we have indeed been guilty of scholarly psittacism.