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prettygoodwordTheme week! I've got five five-letter words in the queue, so imma group 'em together for a 5x5:
reify (REE-uh-fai, RAY-uh-fai) - v., to regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence; to give definite content and form to (a concept or idea).
When the zones of control at the time a cease-fire become the de facto territories, the border is reified. See also deities considered as personifications of abstractions, such as Love. Coined around 1850 (originally in German) from Latin rē(s), thing + -ify, to make/cause (from Latin -ficāre to do/make).
---L.
reify (REE-uh-fai, RAY-uh-fai) - v., to regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence; to give definite content and form to (a concept or idea).
When the zones of control at the time a cease-fire become the de facto territories, the border is reified. See also deities considered as personifications of abstractions, such as Love. Coined around 1850 (originally in German) from Latin rē(s), thing + -ify, to make/cause (from Latin -ficāre to do/make).
---L.
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Date: 2024-05-13 10:02 pm (UTC)THINGIFYING. One of my favorite words!
Here's an example which changed my life. When I went to high school people asked me ignorant questions about my background ("You're from Jamaica! Can you get me pot?"), commented obnoxiously on my hair ("putting oil IN your hair is GROSS"), expected me to steal everything that wasn't nailed down, and so on. And it was SO HARD to describe how all these little incideents abraded my soul and made me doubt myself, especially to people who would pick on one or the other and say "that's not so bad, you're making a mountain of a molehill"
Cue the word "microaggression". A reification I truly needed. Now I could explain WHY it was annoying to have people touch my curls uninvited without people being able to claim I was calling it a physical assault. I could get across that we all have our daily limit of accreted bullshit. Each one was little but they added up. I totally needed that particular reification.
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Date: 2024-05-13 10:59 pm (UTC)That is indeed an excellent word -- it helped me as well, when I first heard it. As did mansplaining.
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Date: 2024-05-14 01:45 am (UTC)(That sort of microaggression doesn’t even need to be verbal, or even require the offender’s personal presence: at a lot of cosmetic and personal care counters, the hair relaxants and cocoa butter products will be in a locked display case. Now; who uses those, and what’s the implicit message?)
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Date: 2024-05-14 03:02 pm (UTC)You, you get it.
Ahahaha now I remember once being about 12 and in a store, and they wouldn't unlock the case so I could buy some Pink Oil. Fun times.
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Date: 2024-05-13 10:59 pm (UTC)Huh, if I saw this in the wild I would have assumed it was a cousin of deify, with the rei of royal/king.
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Date: 2024-05-13 11:00 pm (UTC)Heh. Point!
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Date: 2024-05-14 09:02 pm (UTC)You’re not necessarily wrong; a lot of people have made the case that the concepts of royalty and divinity are reifications.