Escapism is the use of stories, games, films, holidays, or daydreams to forget, for a while, what is hard, dull, or frightening in real life. You are not breaking out of a building; you are getting away in your head. People say it kindly — I need a bit of escapism this weekend — and they also say it with a raised eyebrow, as if you are hiding. Though actually the word itself does not decide if that hiding is foolish: a difficult year can make a gentle novel feel like water. Critics sometimes call a film “pure escapism” to mean it does not look hard truths in the face; fans use the same phrase as praise. It is an abstract noun, slightly grown-up in tone, but the idea is ordinary. Built as escape + -ism, the usual English way of naming a practice or attitude.