ANGLICIZE

views updated Jun 11 2018

ANGLICIZE AmE & BrE, Anglicise AusE & BrE [with and without an initial capital].
1. To make (someone or something) English in nationality, culture, or language: ‘What a strange character is Tennyson's Arthur in Idylls of the King …the most rigorously de-Celticised and Anglicised figure since Layamon's’ ( Tom Shippey, London Review of Books, 26 July 1990).

2. To adopt the English language: ‘Are they allowed to Anglicise if they like, as the Scottish Highlanders were?’ ( P. Thompson, 1857, cited in OED).

3. To turn into an English form: ‘Fort Ross—an anglicized abbreviation of Fuerte de los Rusos’ (Harper's Magazine, Jan. 1883). Compare ANGLIFY, ENGLISHIZE.

Anglicism

views updated May 23 2018

An·gli·cism / ˈanggləˌsizəm/ • n. 1. a word or phrase that is peculiar to British English. ∎  the quality of being typically English or of favoring English things.2. a word or phrase borrowed from English into a foreign language: "purists" condemn the use of "fin de semaine" because it is an anglicism.

ANGLICISM

views updated May 11 2018

ANGLICISM [with or without an initial capital].
1. An expression from English used in another language, such as le fairplay in French.

2. A characteristic, quality, fashion, or fad deriving from England, such as cricket or afternoon tea in Pakistan.

3. A feature of the English language that is peculiar to England, such as the working-class phrase feelin' proper poorly feeling really ill. See BRITICISM.

anglicize

views updated May 11 2018

an·gli·cize / ˈanggləˌsīz/ • v. [tr.] make English in form or character: he anglicized his name to Goodman.DERIVATIVES: an·gli·ci·za·tion / ˌanggləsəˈzāshən/ n.

anglicism

views updated May 23 2018

anglicism English feature or idiom. XVII. f. medL. Anglicus; see prec. and -ISM.
So anglicize XVIII.