aestheticize

especially British, aes·theti·cise

[es-thet-i-sahyz]

verb (used with object)

aestheticized, aestheticizing 

1. to depict as being pleasing or artistically beautiful; represent in an idealized or refined manner.

Word History and Origins

Origin of aestheticize¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; aesthetic ( def. ) + -ize ( def. )

Example Sentences

Either way, the urge to aestheticize work remains.

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“Everything Rises” now has an original score throughout, along with text taken from recorded conversations between Tines and Koh — in part, Tines said, “because it’s about sharing the truth of our experiences, instead of tying to aestheticize our experience. I don’t need to find a poem that represents something I can say more directly.”

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Since purchasing the site in 1977, he has constructed a labyrinth of chambers and tunnels that aestheticize the experience of sky-watching.

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This book does tend to skirt over or even coldly aestheticize unpleasant truths, like the “half-burned bits of bodies” floating past a film crew in the river Ganges; or the fact that Chatwin died of AIDS, not specified here; or even a chauffeur’s offer of a handshake refused by the vestigial “nobles” with whom Ivory, blackballed by college fraternities, found himself consorting after his success.

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“I wanted the show not to aestheticize trauma, and despair and ruin,” says Farhat, adding that her aim was “to emphasize how beautiful the works are and . . . how aesthetics are so important to Syrian artists.”

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