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20 votes

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics, behaviours or traits that are not physical? One easy answer would be reductionist (adjective). Dictionary.com ...
  • 5,876
12 votes

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?

You are probably looking for caricature: a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things. (Dictionary.com)
  • 64.4k
10 votes
Accepted

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?

This can be called typecasting someone. The term originally comes from acting, but it is often used metaphorically; TfD defines it as: To perceive or represent [someone] in reductive or stereotyped ...
  • 6,316
5 votes

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?

The term pigeonhole fits what you are looking for. The Cambridge Dictionary has some definitions for this: to have an often unfair idea of what type someone or something is to put someone or ...
  • 3,533
4 votes
Accepted

What's the adjective for "register" in the linguistic sense?

I would suggest using the noun register in your example: There is a noticeable difference in register between "how do you do" and "howdy". That said, if you must use an adjective ...
  • 5,876
4 votes
Accepted

The traditional grammar term for 'nominals'

It can be hard to generalize about traditional/school grammar — different books and different teachers have different idiosyncratic views and terminology — but I don't think that most traditional ...
  • 14.4k
2 votes

Difference among "suspicion" - "doubt" - "reservation"

If this were me writing this phrase, I'd have said "considerable suspicion". I have reservations/doubts/suspicions (all three are fine), and for that reason, I regard the deal with suspicion....
2 votes

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?

"The issue with all the previous thoughts is that they come from a self-centred, judgemental, labelling attitude". The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that one of the meanings of ...
  • 25k
1 vote

Is there a term that describes reducing a person's identity to certain characteristics?

Essentialism Essentialist thinking says that 'if you are a member of this group, you have all the traits that I associate with that group'. "The issue with all the previous thoughts is that they ...
  • 1,004
1 vote

Why does "hall of cat" sound incorrect, while "hall of cats" sounds correct (and similar)

There is no grammatical rule; it depends on whether the phrase makes sense. I don't know what a 'hall of cat/cats' would be. A 'hall of diamonds' could be a big room decorated with diamonds or ...
  • 21.5k
1 vote
Accepted

How do I express the quality of being alien as a noun?

The Oxford English Dictionary on-line (subscription required) has alienness, n. The fact or quality of being alien (in various senses). Although it cites an example of use in 1655, it states “rare ...
  • 12.1k
1 vote

Semantic Difference between "Skill" and "Skills"

A skill may be seen as'[exceptional] ability' and, there, it may be used without of without a determiner. When used to express a generalisation, it may be singular: "He does it with skill." (...
1 vote

"Do a shop" for "go shopping"

Common in UK English; 'I'm just going out to do a shop' = the weekly groceries. But 'I'm going shopping' = clothes, gadgets, non-routine purchases etc. In Scotland instead of 'do a shop' they might ...

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