zolaize

Etymology

From Zola + -ize.

zolaize means to write in, or adapt to, the style of the French writer Émile Zola (1840–1902). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why “zolaize” is a great word

ZOLAIZE — [Verb] To write in, or adapt to, the style of the French writer Émile Zola, characterized by naturalism and detailed realism. From the surname Zola (Émile Zola) + the verb-forming suffix -ize (meaning "to make, to become, or to practice"). First attested in 1886. Unlike "fictionalize," which invents for narrative convenience, or "romanticize," which idealizes for sentimental comfort, to Zolaize is to commit to an unflinching, almost clinical realism. It is the grime beneath a factory worker’s fingernails, the precise odor of a crowded tenement stairwell, and the pitiless tracing of hereditary decline—a method that treats the novel as a laboratory, rendering the world not as it should be, but as it relentlessly is.

verb

To write in, or adapt to, the style of the French writer Émile Zola (1840–1902).