Anthropomorphism The word anthropomorphism is long, and has three bits to it. The first, anthropo, means human. The second bit is morph, which has to do with changing structure or appearance. The last bit, the -ism, relates to belief or practice. So anthropomorphism is the belief in or practice of giving non-human objects human attributes. When someone talks about an accident waiting to happen, they are speaking anthropomorphically. Accidents don’t literally wait. Accidents have no sense of time. Similarly, when I write, for example, that a metallic atom wants to donate an electron, I am guilty of speaking anthropomorphically, as charged. Don’t take it seriously. I do not attribute consciousness to individual atoms. I am only trying to make the explanation a bit easier to state and less dry, dull and boring. 
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