-ful vs -ism

-ful

suffix
  • Used to form nouns from nouns meaning “as much as can be held by what is denoted by the noun” 

  • Used to form adjectives from nouns, with the sense of being full of, tending to, or thoroughly possessing the quality expressed by the noun. 

-ism

suffix
  • Used to form countable nouns indicating a peculiarity or characteristic of language 

  • Used to form the name of a system, school of thought or theory based on the name of its subject or object or alternatively on the name of its founder (When de-capitalized, these overlap with the generic "doctrines" sense below, e.g. Liberalism vs. liberalism.) 

  • Used to form names of a tendency of behaviour, action, state, condition or opinion belonging to a class or group of persons, or the result of a doctrine, ideology or principle or lack thereof. 

  • Used to form nouns of action or process or result based on the accompanying verb in -ise or -ize. 

  • Used to form names of ideologies expressing belief in the superiority of a certain class within the concept expressed by the root word, or a pattern of behavior or a social norm that benefits members of the group indicated by the root word. (Based on a late 20th-century narrowing of the "terms for a doctrine" sense.) 

  • Used to form names of conditions or syndromes 

How often have the words -ful and -ism occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )