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Birminghamize. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
Birminghamize, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
Birminghamize in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
Birminghamize you have here. The definition of the word
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English
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)
- (transitive) To make ersatz
- 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch. Ⅴ – "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, →ISBN, page 292:“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.”