See Birminghamize on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Birmingham",
"3": "ize"
},
"expansion": "Birmingham + -ize",
"name": "suffix"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Attested since 1856, from Birmingham + -ize. From the English city being known for cheap knock-off goods. Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Birminghamizes",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamizing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamized",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamized",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamise",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "Birminghamize (third-person singular simple present Birminghamizes, present participle Birminghamizing, simple past and past participle Birminghamized)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms suffixed with -ize",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch. Ⅴ – \"Ability\".\n“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.”"
},
{
"ref": "[1972, Milton Ridvas Konvitz, The recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson: selected criticism since 1837, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160:",
"text": "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...",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1986, Michael W. Doyle, Empires, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 292:",
"text": "“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.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[2002, Rachel Crawford, Poetry, enclosure, and the vernacular landscape, 1700–1830, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160:",
"text": "The colloquial form of the city’s name thus entered the language as a contemptuous epithet. In 1861 the word was used to describe “The vulgar dandy, strutting along, with his Brummajem jewellry”; to “Birminhamize” was “to artificialize.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[Fall 2010, Deidre Shauna Lynch, “\"Young ladies are delicate plants\": Jane Austen and Greenhouse Romanticism”, in ELH, volume 77, number 3, Johns Hopkins University Press:",
"text": "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.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[2010, Rhys Richards, “Ceramic Imitation Arm Rings for Indigenous Trade in the Solomon Islands 1880 to 1920”, in Records of the Auckland Museum, volume 47, Auckland War Memorial Museum, →JSTOR, page 106:",
"text": "In the 19th Century, the word Birmingham was used to mean artificial (the associated verb was birminghamize).",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[2020-12-17, Aurélie Héois, “When Proper Names Become Verbs: A Semantic Perspective”, in Lexis, →DOI, retrieved 2024-10-02:",
"text": "Indeed, the comparison of Manchesterize and Birminghamize showed that, from a semantic point of view, there are no differences in the relationship between the verb and the PN etymon even though the former is listed as deriving from a common noun, itself originating from a PN.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To make ersatz"
],
"id": "en-Birminghamize-en-verb-lu2x9A9P",
"links": [
[
"ersatz",
"ersatz"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive) To make ersatz"
],
"related": [
{
"word": "brummagem"
}
],
"tags": [
"transitive"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Ralph Waldo Emerson"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɜː.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɝ.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
}
],
"word": "Birminghamize"
}
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Birmingham",
"3": "ize"
},
"expansion": "Birmingham + -ize",
"name": "suffix"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Attested since 1856, from Birmingham + -ize. From the English city being known for cheap knock-off goods. Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Birminghamizes",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamizing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamized",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamized",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "Birminghamise",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "Birminghamize (third-person singular simple present Birminghamizes, present participle Birminghamizing, simple past and past participle Birminghamized)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "brummagem"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English terms suffixed with -ize",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch. Ⅴ – \"Ability\".\n“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.”"
},
{
"ref": "[1972, Milton Ridvas Konvitz, The recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson: selected criticism since 1837, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160:",
"text": "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...",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1986, Michael W. Doyle, Empires, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 292:",
"text": "“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.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[2002, Rachel Crawford, Poetry, enclosure, and the vernacular landscape, 1700–1830, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160:",
"text": "The colloquial form of the city’s name thus entered the language as a contemptuous epithet. In 1861 the word was used to describe “The vulgar dandy, strutting along, with his Brummajem jewellry”; to “Birminhamize” was “to artificialize.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[Fall 2010, Deidre Shauna Lynch, “\"Young ladies are delicate plants\": Jane Austen and Greenhouse Romanticism”, in ELH, volume 77, number 3, Johns Hopkins University Press:",
"text": "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.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[2010, Rhys Richards, “Ceramic Imitation Arm Rings for Indigenous Trade in the Solomon Islands 1880 to 1920”, in Records of the Auckland Museum, volume 47, Auckland War Memorial Museum, →JSTOR, page 106:",
"text": "In the 19th Century, the word Birmingham was used to mean artificial (the associated verb was birminghamize).",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "[2020-12-17, Aurélie Héois, “When Proper Names Become Verbs: A Semantic Perspective”, in Lexis, →DOI, retrieved 2024-10-02:",
"text": "Indeed, the comparison of Manchesterize and Birminghamize showed that, from a semantic point of view, there are no differences in the relationship between the verb and the PN etymon even though the former is listed as deriving from a common noun, itself originating from a PN.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To make ersatz"
],
"links": [
[
"ersatz",
"ersatz"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive) To make ersatz"
],
"tags": [
"transitive"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Ralph Waldo Emerson"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɜː.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɝ.mɪŋ.əmaɪz/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
}
],
"word": "Birminghamize"
}
Download raw JSONL data for Birminghamize meaning in All languages combined (4.2kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.