substantify

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To give material form or substance to

   To give material form or substance to; to embody.

   • With the problems of theory domain and theory focus out of the way, we are now ready to design and set down an integrating construct which will substantify, hold together and make opertional the theoretical framework.
   • Matthew tries to draw an analogy between the divine person and the divine nature: just as the infinite divine nature can be substantified in many divine persons, so the infinite divine person can substantify many created natures.
   • The First does not need two elements—one being to substantify (give substance to) its “essence”; the other to create or communicate “through which something else comes from it” (alFarabi, 1985, p. 93).
2. 2

   To reify or hypostatize

   To reify or hypostatize; to treat something that is fluid or abstract as a static entity without regard to nuance or change in character.

   • It is partly because almost inevitably a word, referring to a vague intimation of reality, tends to substantify and reify the insight with time.
3. 3

   To endow with a consciousness, will, motivation and independent existence

   To endow with a consciousness, will, motivation and independent existence; to give life to; to hypostatize.

   • Here Newton identifies the propensity in human language to hypostatize, personify and substantify abstractions.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      To transform into or treat syntactically as a noun

      To transform into or treat syntactically as a noun; to make into or use as a substantive.

      • They are, in fact, equivalent to the infinitive which some languages substantify directly (das Rennen, das Sprechen, le manger, le boire, le dormir).
      • The definite article was used particularly to substantify pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, but appears always to have retained the quality of a demonstrative.

The neighborhood