banalize

[beachboy]

Are there more commonly used synonyms for the verb "banalize"? For example, when referring to crime...

 

[bhaisahab]

Are there more commonly used synonyms for the verb "banalize"? For example, when referring to crime...

Where did you find "banalize"? It's not a word I have ever heard or seen and it doesn't appear in any of the dictionaries I have checked.

 

[birdeen's call]

Where did you find "banalize"? It's not a word I have ever heard or seen and it doesn't appear in any of the dictionaries I have checked.

The American Heritage Dictionary has it but not as a separate entry (banalize - definition of banalize by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.)

What's your context, beachboy?

 

[beachboy]

Merriam-Webster has it.
Crime is committed in such an easy way nowadays that it's becoming a banal thing. Crime is being "banalized".

 

[Allen165]

Merriam-Webster has it.
Crime is commited in such an easy way nowadays that it's becoming a banal thing. Crime is being "banalized".

I think such a word should exist in English. (It exists in French and German.) An educated person will understand it.

 

[birdeen's call]

I can't think of one word that would mean that. I understand that you're looking for an intransitive verb. ("Crime is X-ing" instead of "crime is being Y-ed"). Is that right? I'd say, "Crime is losing its power to shock," or, "Crime is becoming/growing/getting banal/common/commonplace."

I hope someone provides better ideas. It's irritating that words in one language don't have exact counterparts in other languages. Someone should fix it!

 

[beachboy]

Actually, I was looking for a transitive verb, as "people are X-ing crime", because that a way to say it in Portuguese. On the other hand, we know that we can't purely translate sentences. So I was trying to find out how natives would convey this idea more naturally... Maybe they would say it in a totally different way... But your ideas work perfectly.

 

[BobK]

I think such a word should exist in English. (It exists in French and German.) An educated person will understand it.

... and does, but in that MW citation, the quotation marks indicate that it's a newly-coined word.

There's although the word 'vulgarized', which has unfortunately been tainted by a limited understanding of the term 'vulgar'. Luckily, this misunderstanding doesn't extend to Portuguese! ;-)

There is also an idiom that is applied to culture rather than to crime, meaning 'made to appeal to a wider/simpler level' - dumbed down.

b

 

[Rover_KE]

Does trivialised hit the spot for you?

Rover

 

[beachboy]

It certainly does!