reification

Wikipedia

See also réification

English

Etymology

First attested around 1846; a macaronic calque of German Verdinglichung, using -ification (“making”) for ver- + -lich + -ung, and Latin res (“thing”) for Ding (“thing”)

Pronunciation

• enPR: rāəfəkāshən, IPA: /ˌɹeɪəfəˈkeɪʃən/, X-SAMPA: /%r\eI@f@"keIS@n/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

reification (plural reifications)

1. The consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living.
2. The consideration of a human being as an impersonal object.
3. (programming) Process that makes out of a non-computable/addressable object a computable/addressable one.

Synonyms

• objectification
• thingification

Derived terms

• reify

Translations

Consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living

• Chinese: 具象化 (cmn)
• Finnish: konkretisointi (fi)
• French: réification (fr)
• German: Verdinglichung (de) f, Vergegenständlichung (de) f, Reifikation (de) f
• Korean: 실재화 (ko)

• Norwegian: tingliggjøring (no)
• Portuguese: Reificação (pt)
• Russian: реификация (ru) (reifikacija)
• Spanish: cosificación (es) f
• Turkish: cisimleştirme (tr), maddeleştirme (tr), soyutlaştırma (tr)

Consideration of a human being as an impersonal object

(programmingreification) Process that makes out of a non-computable/addressable object a computable/addressable one

• German: Reifizierung (de) f