Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To express or extract the essential form of.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To reduce to its
essence .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In a general sense, there are elective affinities between Islamism and Nazism: The two "essentialize" the enemy, one through a religious mode and the other, still worse, in the form of biological racism.
t r u t h o u t 2010
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Yes, I agree that a lot of people on both sides of the issue essentialize the conflict to be about Jews vs. Arabs, and its racist no matter who does it.
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All the Abrahamic religions contain such a variety of belief, practice and interpretation that I think it is unfair to try and essentialize them and make sweeping generalisations about "Judaism", "Christianity" or "Islam".
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I'm probably trading one elusive term for another, ie essentialize for succeed, but it seems to me that a painter is not essentializing something when their painting fails.
Abstract Art EAGEAGEAG 2009
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Mythical musings which essentialize man as hero or protector or whatever have a long and very ignoble history in the west.
Archive 2009-10-01 Steven Barnes 2009
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It is these historical complexities that make me inclined not to essentialize.
Self-Critical Faith James F. McGrath 2009
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These so-called progressive women are more than happy to essentialize gender roles if it means oppressing someone that is not like them but you can rest assured that if it meant that they were forced to perform genderized work i.e. stay home and play good little wife while the husband works, you would hear an uproar.
Congratulations to Thomas Beattie In Spite of “The Views” Transphobia Renee 2009
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No, what we should be ashamed of is that scholars readily essentialize those millions of youth who have chosen to serve their country since the draft was abolished.
A Classroom Dialogue 2007
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"Mythical musings which essentialize man as hero or protector or whatever have a long and very ignoble history in the West."
A letter on masculinity and myth Steven Barnes 2009
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Mythical musings which essentialize man as hero or protector or whatever have a long and very ignoble history in the west.
A letter on masculinity and myth Steven Barnes 2009
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