to hypostasize
- verb
- /haɪˈpɒstəˌsaɪz/
- Formal
:
hipostasiar
- In his central work, Stirner attacks a series of ideas—State, Family, Man—which he describes as fixed ideas lacking in substantive reality, and which are hypostasized by individuals in such a way that they come to dominate human life.
Examples
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They have indeed shown a commendable reluctance, encouraged by the morphemic structure of their language, to hypostasize or reify any abstract concept (p. 195).
Academic text (2000) -
Philosophers often discuss how people tend to hypostasize love as if it were a tangible object rather than an abstract feeling.
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Inevitably, the shared property steps forward as being the truly essential thing, the part that is "necessary to human societies," as Wretchard puts it; even though this hypostasized something never existed as such and certainly isn't "necessary" to anybody.
Blog text (29) -
In many cultures, death is hypostasized through various rituals that give it a distinct form and meaning.
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Artists sometimes hypostasize emotions in their work, portraying them as characters or entities that can be interacted with.
Synonyms
3
9.9
To think of an idea as a real thing
2
7.4
To make an idea or feeling into a real, visible thing
1
9.9
To make an idea or feeling into something physical
To treat an idea as if it were a real thing
Surface Forms
Morphology
hypostasize = hypostasis (transparent) = hypostasis + ize
The verb is directly formed by the productive verbalizing suffix '-ize' from the noun 'hypostasis', so its meaning is 'to make or treat as a hypostasis'.
Etymology
Hypostasize comes from the Greek parts hypo- 'under' and stasis 'standing', which together point to an 'underlying thing that stands'. So, to hypostasize something is to treat an idea as if it 'stands' by itself, a real, separate thing.