lifemanship

[ lahyf-muhn-ship ]

noun

1. the ability to conduct one's life, career, personal relationships, etc., in a successful manner.
2. the skill or practice of conveying to others a real or apparent sense of one's superiority.

Word History and Origins

Origin of lifemanship¹

First recorded in 1945–50; life + -manship; popularized, especially in sense of lifemanship def 2, by the book Some Notes on Lifemanship (1950) by British author Stephen Potter (1900–69)

Example Sentences

Stephen Potter, the English satirist and the inventor of “Lifemanship,” pointed out once that the essence of “reviewmanship,” being one up in book reviews, is perverse praise: giving writers credit for qualities they are supposed to lack, or criticizing them for not having ones that they clearly possess—i.e., extolling the open sadism of Jane Austen or lamenting the sexual timidity of D. H. Lawrence.

From The New Yorker

I protested to Potter as soon as the book came out that I had sent him the original in 1947, when his Gamesmanship had been published: an article entitled "Not in the South," which I had written in Punch, May 28, 1941, long before I knew Potter or had heard of gamesmanship or lifemanship.

From Time Magazine Archive

Perhaps Supermanship's greatest merit lies in the fact that it should stimulate readers to develop Lifemanship ploys of their own.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yes, but not in the South," as Potter went on to explain in Some Notes on Lifemanship, is a phrase that "with slight adjustments, will do for any argument about any place, if not about any person.

From Time Magazine Archive

Lifemanship can take many other directions.

From Time Magazine Archive