Cool new verb: redensify

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Nov 2, 2010, at 8:28 AM, Geoff Nathan wrote:

> 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

OED2 does have an entry for "densify", with cites going back to 1820 (though none with reference to making cities denser).

arnold

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