Bēastiamorphize

The definition of “bēastiamorphize” is to dehumanize a person, specifically, to an animal’s level (by aesthetically altering a person’s appearance and/or treating them differently). It’s essentially the opposite of anthropomorphizing an animal.

I created the word, “bēastiamorphize,” back in 2012 when writing the paper, “Emotions Cemented in Time.” It was the last major paper of my college career—and my professors knew I already created other words such as “Libracracy” and “e-flation”—so I decided it wouldn’t be too bold.

In case you didn’t already understand the etymology of my word: “Morph,” from Greek, means to change from one state to another. “Beast,” from English, means animal. The accented “e” is an intentional Latinization of the English word that originated from Latin in the first place (i.e., I was exercising a Linguistic irony—if I’m permitted to use that word rather loosely—a sort of creative license).

The coolest thing about coining your own word is the lack of authority or credibility. That may sound strange, but I sometimes tire of the Intellectual Property schema most of us creative writers are often forced in to. I want to get paid for my writing, but that’s only because this economic-ruled world demands money if I’m to survive to create more art.

I’d be interested to know if anyone reading this blog post has thought about creating a word—or whether or not they’d be open to the idea of trying. I don’t think you have to be a genius to do it. Sometimes, it happens organically. In the case of “bēastiamorphize,” it arose in response to a need. I wanted a word that described a person treating themselves or other people as an animal. You know what they say: Invention is the offspring of necessity. (They say that; right?)

I don’t think people should be so shy about creating new words when it feels like the English language was practically designed for it. After all, how could any word be conceived if nobody was willing to mate two ideas together?

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