Birminghamize
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- Birminghamise (non-Oxford British spelling)
Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɜː.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbɝ.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/
Verb
[edit]Birminghamize (third-person singular simple present Birminghamizes, present participle Birminghamizing, simple past and past participle Birminghamized)
- (transitive) To make ersatz [1856]
- 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.”
- 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch. Ⅴ – "Ability".