Cool new verb: redensify

[Dan Goncharoff]

I seem to recall the phrase "urban densification" thrown around a lot.
DanG

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Cool new verb: redensify
>
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> 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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