different between anthropomorphism vs reification

English

Etymology

Coined in the mid-1700s. From Ancient Greek ???????? (ánthr?pos, “man, human being”) and ????? (morph?, “form, shape”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æn???p??m??f?z?m/

Noun

anthropomorphism (countable and uncountable, plural anthropomorphisms)

1. The attribution of human characteristics and behavior to something not human. [from the mid-18th c.]
2. (theology) the attribution of human characteristics to divine beings

Usage notes

This term carries very different connotations when used in different contexts. In literature, anthropomorphism describes merely a device of fiction writing, whereas in science (particularly biology) anthropomorphism has traditionally been used pejoratively when a scientist appears to be attributing to animals characteristics that are assumed to be exclusive to human beings.

Antonyms

• dehumanization

Related terms

• anthropomorphic
• anthropomorphically

Translations

See also

• anthropomorphism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• prosopopoeia
• zoomorphism
• kemonomimi
• nahualism

English

Etymology

First attested around 1846; a macaronic calque of German Verdinglichung, using -ification (“making”) for ver- + -lich + -ung, and Latin res (“thing”) for Ding (“thing”)

Pronunciation

• enPR: r??f?k?sh?n, IPA^(key): /??e??f??ke???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

reification (countable and uncountable, plural reifications)

1. The consideration of an abstract thing as if it were concrete, or of an inanimate object as if it were living.
2. The consideration of a human being as an impersonal object.
3. (programming) Process that makes a computable/addressable object out of a non-computable/addressable one.
4. (linguistics) The transformation of a natural-language statement into a form in which its actions and events are quantifiable variables.

Synonyms

• hypostatization
• objectification
• pathetic fallacy
• thingification

Derived terms

• dereification

Derived terms

• reify

Translations