Cool new verb: redensify

Geoff Nathan geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU
Tue Nov 2 15:28:12 UTC 2010


I'm involved with a group trying to keep the Detroit Symphony alive, and as part of that effort received the following message this morning:

'New York-based Living Cities , a collaborative of 22 national foundations and financial institutions, plans to invest $22 million in an effort to *redensify* Detroit's Woodward Corridor.'

Brief search showed it's not in Urbandictionary or OED. Google finds about 7800 hits, mostly dealing with some kind of face cream (and the usual gripes about 'murdering the English language' dealing with that cream).
But there's a hit from 1998 too, that references the concept of bringing a depopulated city back to its previous density (and, we hope, liveliness):

http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19980807/21950854.html

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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