Birminghamize
UK/ˈbɜː.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/US/ˈbɝ.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/
Birminghamize verb: to make ersatz .
Verb
Birminghamize (third-person singular simple present Birminghamizes, present participle Birminghamizing, simple past and past participle Birminghamized)
- To make ersatz .
- “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.”1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch. Ⅴ – "Ability".
- He has a relish for unfamiliar words, words of recent coinage or of his own make, or that closely similar type of words to which age has brought a second childhood... After this “Birminhamize” will be a mere peccadillo...[1972, Milton Ridvas Konvitz, The recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson: selected criticism since 1837, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160
Examples of Birminghamize in a sentence
- The horticultural site where some ladies naturalize is here revealed as a site where, simultaneously, others birminghamize—a nineteenth-century synonym, the OED states, for "artificialize."[Fall 2010, Deidre Shauna Lynch, “"Young ladies are delicate plants": Jane Austen and Greenhouse Romanticism”, in ELH, volume 77, number 3...
- In the 19th Century, the word Birmingham was used to mean artificial (the associated verb was birminghamize).[2010, Rhys Richards, “Ceramic Imitation Arm Rings for Indigenous Trade in the Solomon Islands 1880 to 1920”, in Records of the Auckland...
Forms of Birminghamize
| third-person singular present | Birminghamizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | Birminghamizing |
| past participle | Birminghamized |
| past | Birminghamized |
| alternative form | Birminghamise |
Origin of Birminghamize
Attested since 1856, from Birmingham + -ize. From the English city being known for cheap knock-off goods. Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Questions about Birminghamize
- What does Birminghamize mean?
- Birminghamize means to make ersatz .
- How do you use Birminghamize in a sentence?
- The horticultural site where some ladies naturalize is here revealed as a site where, simultaneously, others birminghamize—a nineteenth-century synonym, the OED states, for "artificialize."
- What part of speech is Birminghamize?
- Birminghamize is a verb.
- How do you pronounce Birminghamize?
- Birminghamize is pronounced /ˈbɜː.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of Birminghamize?
- The past tense of Birminghamize is Birminghamized.
Words near Birminghamize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Birminghamize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Birminghamize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/birminghamize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.