thingification

English

Etymology

From thing +‎ -ification, following thingify.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /θɪŋɪfɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/

Noun

thingification

1. The fact or process of turning something into a thing.

   Synonyms: objectification, reification

   • 2011, David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, Penguin, published 2012, page 99:

     Dictionaries alone aren't responsible for the thingification of natural languages, but they crystallized a peculiar modern view of what it means to have a language.

   • 2021 September 23, Charles M. Blow, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., “Gwen Ifill Was Right About ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     This is what happens when a country doesn’t see some people as fully human. It’s what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the “thingification of the Negro.”