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Can one use the term generify to mean 'to make generic'? E.g. a software programmer being told: 'generify this segment of code'.

If not, what may be a single word replacement of this phrase?

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29

Genericise / genericize is the version I most frequently hear. Out of interest, I ran an ngram test, with generify not getting a single hit. Genericize, however, has risen in usage from the '80s.

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11

Generify is certainly the right word to use in the context of Java generics.

This is from the Java Language Specification preface:

Joe Darcy and Ken Russell implemented much of the specific support for reflection of generics. Neal Gafter, Josh Bloch and Mark Reinhold did a huge amount of work generifying the JDK libraries.

In other fields, genericise / genericize would be better recognised, as answered by Mr. Disappointment.

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6

The dictionary doesn't display a result, but does come up with "generification", which I assume is where "generify" comes from.
There's the alternatives of "generalize" or "abstract".

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1
  • Generalize is the term I use when adjusting code to be less specialized and cover additional use cases
    – 111
    Aug 16, 2017 at 23:06
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I think so. It gets used all the time in my workspace workplace.

.:. it is fine to used as words evolve over time.

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  • 4
    Until you get to generifyizication - then you should stop.
    – mgb
    Jun 7, 2011 at 16:27
  • 3
    Agreed. We must stopifyizicate all generifyizication!
    – ErikE
    Mar 27, 2012 at 22:56
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In mathematics, the usual word used for this context is generalize.

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