valorize means to assess (something) as being valuable or admirable. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
valorize is pronounced /ˈvæləˌraɪz/.
Why “valorize” is a great word
To give or assign value to something, either by recognizing its worth or by artificially fixing its price, often through government intervention. Its roots lie in a back-formation from ‘valorization’, borrowed from Portuguese valorização (action of giving value), from valor (value) and the suffix -ização (-ization), entering English in the early twentieth century. Unlike "appraise" (which neutrally assesses an existing worth) or "devalue" (which strips worth away), to valorize is an act of bestowal or decree. It is the bureaucrat’s pen setting a minimum price for coffee beans, the critic’s essay lifting a forgotten novel into the canon, or the collective memory transforming a patch of grass into hallowed ground—a testament to how much of what we hold dear is not found, but made.
Etymology
Back-formation from valorization.
verb
- To assess (something) as being valuable or admirable.“[…]noting his tendency “to valorise my father and, I'm afraid, to demonise her because of some of the tendencies she had: she was very harsh. That was a faint undertone to my 'idyllic' childhood, I suppose.””
- To fix the price of (something) at an artificially high level, usually by government action.
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