vulgarizev.
/ˈvʌlɡərʌɪz/, U.S. /ˈvəlɡəˌraɪz/ 1. intransitive. To act in a vulgar manner; to become vulgar.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > behave badly [verb (intransitive)] > behave in ill-mannered or unrefined way
to play the bear1579
lob1596
clown1600
vulgarize1605
swab1638
hoyden1709
lout1807
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > deprive of refinement [verb (intransitive)] > be or become vulgar
to come to town1600
vulgarize1605
1605 S. Daniel Epist. to Lady Anne Clifford vi Honour..cannot stray and breake abroade Into the priuate wayes of carelesnesse; Nor euer may descend to vulgarize, Or be below the sphere of her abode.
1846 C. G. F. Gore Sketches Eng. Char. (1852) 96 A man having too much regard for his complexion to infringe upon the wine-cellar, and too much interest in his slimness to vulgarise on ale.
2. transitive. To make common or popular; to reduce to the level of something usual or ordinary.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > do habitually [verb (transitive)] > render (a thing) habitual > make commonplace
hackney1598
vulgarize1709
commonplace1847
pedestrianize1945
banalize1949
1709 T. Robinson Vindic. Mosaick Syst. Introd. 6 in Ess. Nat. Hist. Westmorland & Cumberland To Vulgarize and to Allegorize the Scripture, are equally of evil Consequence to Religion.
1786 J. Reynolds Disc. Royal Acad. 273 To find proper foundations for science is neither to narrow or to vulgarise it.
1839 P. J. Bailey Festus 145 The great bards..Men who have vulgarized sublimity, And bought up truth for the nations.
1870 J. R. Lowell Among my Bks. (1873) 1st Ser. 154 The invention of printing, without yet vulgarizing letters, had made the thought and history of the entire past contemporaneous.
1872 R. Browning Fifine lxxv Change yourself, dissimulate the thought And vulgarize the word.
3.
a. To make vulgar or commonplace; to debase, degrade.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > deprive of refinement [verb (transitive)] > vulgarize
hackney1598
vulgarize1756
plebeianize1841
plebify1867
plebificate1869
kitsch1951
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disrepute > damage to reputation > degrading or debasement > degrade [verb (transitive)] > by familiarity
profane1643
vulgarize1756
1756 F. Brooke Old Maid No. 32. 188 Its being the religion of the whole nation has made it too common, and if I may be allow'd the Expression, vulgariz'd it.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. i. 74 It would vilify, and, I may say, vulgarise the Almighty, to imagine Him..engaged among the trifling scenes that occupy our notice.
a1821 V. Knox Winter Evenings xxxviii, in Wks. (1824) II. 478 Learning sullied with pedantry, exhortation vulgarized by low wit.
1822 W. Hazlitt Table-talk II. i. 7 They vulgarise and degrade whatever is interesting or sacred to the mind.
a1853 F. W. Robertson Wordsworth in Lect. (1858) 244 It seemed as if all that noise was vulgarizing the poet.
1871 L. Stephen Playground of Europe i. 63 Some..peak, not yet vulgarised by associations with guides and picnics.
b. absol. To cause or produce vulgarity.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > deprive of refinement [verb (intransitive)] > be or become vulgar > cause or produce vulgarity
vulgarize1849
1849 C. Brontë Shirley I. vi. 122 Family jarring vulgarizes—family union elevates.
Derivatives
ˈvulgarized adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > [adjective] > of no special quality > commonplace > making > made
vulgarized1847
1847 T. De Quincey Let. 19 Sept. in ‘H. A. Page’ T. De Quincey: Life & Writings (1877) I. xv. 349 The absolute realities of vulgarised life as it exists in plebeian ranks amongst our countrymen.
1884 Harper's Mag. Mar. 568/2 The vulgarized phrase, a gentleman.
ˈvulgarizer n. one who vulgarizes or makes popular.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > publishing or spreading abroad > [noun] > person who
publisherc1453
bruiter1535
dissipater1537
spreader1542
utterer1549
setter-outc1553
disperser1580
seed carrier1602
divulger1606
propagator1610
promulgera1635
dispreader1636
divulgater1637
promulgater1637
diffuser1645
promulgator1648
disseminator1667
circulator1792
vulgarizer1899
forthteller1920
vulgarisateur1933
1899 Athenæum 28 Jan. 105/3 He [Albert Smith] was the vulgarizer of Switzerland.
ˈvulgarizing n. and adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > [adjective] > of no special quality > commonplace > making
vulgarizing1831
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of refinement > [noun] > vulgarity > rendering vulgar
plebification1818
vulgarization1819
vulgarizing1946
1831 Mrs. Hemans in Chorley Mem. (1836) II. 236 Braham's singing was not equal to the instrumental part, but he did not disfigure it by his customary and vulgarizing graces.
1871 L. Stephen Playground of Europe (1894) xii. 280 The eternal mountains..never recall..the vulgarising association of old days.
1946 J. S. Huxley Unesco ii. 60 They [sc. press and radio] have already rendered many disservices—in the vulgarising of taste, in the debasement of intellectual standards.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1920; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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