massify

English

Etymology

mass +‎ -ify

Verb

massify (third-person singular simple present massifies, present participle massifying, simple past and past participle massified)

1. (transitive and intransitive, anthropology) To become, or cause to become, oriented toward mass production, mass consumption, and high throughput rather than individuality.
2. (transitive, linguistics, rare) To use as a mass noun.
   • 1992, James F. Allen and Lenhart K. Schubert, “Language and Discourse in the TRAINS Project”, in Andrew Ortony, John Slack, and Oliviero Stock (editors), Communication From an Artificial Intelligence Perspective: Theoretical and Applied Issues, NATO ASI Series F: Computer and Systems Sciences, Volume 100, Springer, →ISBN, page 104,

     Under deviant vocabulary we include “verbing” of nouns (He tricycled away), and perhaps “massifying” of count nouns and “countifying” of mass nouns. (Note that the preceding sentence itself contains instances of deviant vocabulary in scare quotes.) “Massifying” and “countifying” are illustrated respectively by A year ago they started digging the hole for his house; A year later, there's still more hole than house; and ^[sic] How many orange juice ^[sic] will that give us?.

Derived terms

• massification
• massifier

Translations

become oriented towards mass production

• French: massifier (fr)
• Portuguese: massificar

See also

• countify