Hellenize, v.
(ˈhɛlɪnaɪz)
[mod. ad. Gr. Ἑλληνίζ-ειν to speak Greek, to make Greek, f. Ἕλλην Hellene.]
1. intr. To use the Greek language; to adopt Greek or Hellenistic habits; to become, or live as, a Greek or Hellenist.
| 1613 [see Hellenizing vbl. n. below]. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. i. 279 Such [of the Jews] as did Hellenize and dispersedly dwell out of Palestine with the Greeks. 1653 Hammond Annot. Acts vi. 1 (R.) So saith Phavorinus..to hellenize is to speak Greek, and to have skill in the Greek learning. 1806 Edin. Rev. VII. 493 In Alexandria..the Egyptian superstitions..condescended to hellenize a little. 1879 Farrar St. Paul ii. 27 There had been..Hellenistic Jews who Hellenised in matters far more serious than the language which they spoke. |
b. nonce-use. To adopt Hellenism (sense 3 b).
| 1869 M. Arnold Cult. & Anarchy Pref. (1875) 47 Now and for us, it is a time to Hellenise, and to praise knowing; for we have Hebraised too much, and have over-valued doing. |
2. trans. To make Greek or Hellenistic in form or character.
| 1799 W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. I. 290 Perhaps I shall one day have to hellenize the jargon. 1845 Blackw. Mag. LVII. 514 To Anglicize Pindar is not the adventure. It is to Hellenize an English reader. a 1873 Lytton Pausanias 274 Why should not Asia be Hellenized? |
Hence ˈHellenized ppl. a.; ˈHellenizing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈHellenizer, one who affects the Greek language and ways.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 137 The Hellenists were so called of hellenizing or vsing the Greeke tongue in their Synagogues. 1844 W. Kay in Fleury's Eccl. Hist. III. 29 note, Pelagius is only a Hellenized form of Morgan. 1846 Trench Mirac. v. (1862) 177 There were numbers of hellenizing Jews just in these parts. 1854 Keightley Mythol. Greece & Italy (ed. 3) 462 Some of the Hellenisers said she was Minerva. 1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall Rome vi. 283 Leontius, the candidate for the throne selected by the Heathenizers, or Hellenizers, for the names have the same import. 1869 Contemp. Rev. XI. 151 Mr. Arnold, a Hellenizer by every instinct of his nature. |