grangerize means to illustrate (a book) with material such as images taken from other published sources, such as by clipping them out for one's own use. It carries an Arena rating of 1646, earned across 81 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, grangerize ranks #1,008 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #2,076 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,188 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,471 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
grangerize is pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪnʒəɹaɪz/.
Why “grangerize” is a great word
GRANGERIZE — [Verb] To illustrate or augment a book by adding material, especially prints or plates, taken from other published sources, often by cutting them out. From the proper name Granger (after James Granger, an 18th-century English biographer) + the English suffix -ize (forming verbs meaning 'to make' or 'to treat in a specified way'). Unlike "illustrate," which suggests the provision of original or commissioned pictures, or "bowdlerize," which denotes a puritanical subtraction, to grangerize is an acquisitive, additive, and often destructive act of personal curation. It is the careful excision of a steel engraving from a gazetteer, the puckered ridge of dried glue holding a foxed portrait, and the satisfying heft of a once-slender tome now swollen with pirated plates—a quiet rebellion against the fixity of the published word, proving that no book is ever truly complete in the hands of a devoted reader.
Etymology
From Granger + -ize, after James Granger, an 18th-century English biographer. Granger's Biographical History of England (1769) included areas for readers to illustrate the pages.
verb
- To illustrate (a book) with material such as images taken from other published sources, such as by clipping them out for one's own use.
- To illustrate with material taken from published sources.
- To remove material, especially images, from a publication.e.g.“In fifty cases out of a hundred, booksellers who make grangerizing a speciality find it pays far better to break up an illustrated book than to sell it intact.” — 1895, William Roberts, The book-hunter in London: historical and other studies of collectors and collecting. With numerous portraits and illustrations:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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