Birminghamize

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: en, /ˈbɜː.mɪŋ.É™maɪz/GA IPA: en, /ˈbɝ.mɪŋ.É™maɪz/

Alternative forms

• Birminghamise non-Oxford British spelling

Origin

Attested since 1856, from en + -Birmingham + ize. From the English city being known for cheap knock-off goods. Coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Grose, Howard Bristol. College Composition (1926) p. 446, Scott, Foresman and Company.

Konvitz, Milton Ridvas. The Recognition of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Criticism Since 1837 (1972) p. 150, University of Michigan Press. .

Full definition of Birminghamize

Verb

1. (transitive) To make ersatz 1856
• 1856, Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, ch. â…¤ â€“ "".“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.”
• 1986, Michael W. Doyle, Empires, Cornell University Press, p. 292,“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.”