Birminghamize

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Attested since 1856, from Birmingham + -ize. From the English city being known for cheap knock-off goods. Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson.[1][2]

Pronunciation

Verb

Birminghamize (third-person singular simple present Birminghamizes, present participle Birminghamizing, simple past and past participle Birminghamized)

  1. (transitive) To make ersatz [1856]
    • 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch.  – "Ability".
      “The manners and customs of society are artificial;—made-up men with made-up manners;—and thus the whole is Birminghamized, and we have a nation whose existence is a work of art;—a cold, barren, almost arctic isle being made the most fruitful, luxurious and imperial land in the whole earth.”
    • 1986, Michael W. Doyle, Empires, Cornell University Press, p. 292, →ISBN
      “Full Home Rule, first through a powerful system of local government (Chamberlain’s proposal to "Birminghamize" Ireland), later through a wider, national self-government, inexorably became the only Liberal solution.”

See also

References

  1. Grose, Howard Bristol. College Composition (1926) p. 446, Scott, Foresman and Company.
  2. Konvitz, Milton Ridvas. The Recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Criticism Since 1837 (1972) p. 150, University of Michigan Press. →ISBN.
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