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Italianize

American  
[ih-tal-yuh-nahyz] / ɪˈtæl jəˌnaɪz /
especially British, Italianise

verb (used without object)

Italianized, Italianizing
  1. to become Italian in manner, character, etc.

  2. to speak Italian.


verb (used with object)

Italianized, Italianizing
  1. to make Italian, especially in manner, character, etc.

Italianize British  
/ ɪˈtæljəˌnaɪz /

verb

  1. to make or become Italian or like an Italian person or thing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of Italianize

First recorded in 1605–15; Italian + -ize


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Joan Acocella recounts her ex-husband’s attempts to Italianize their Christmas.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 25, 2019

An American Army Air Forces lieutenant gallantly saves the day, an opportunity for Tutino to Italianize "The Star Spangled Banner" just as Puccini had in "Madama Butterfly."

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2015

Under the new law, Gina Lollobrigida can Italianize her 1968 Austrian divorce from Milko Skofic, and Maria Callas can shed Giovanni Battista Meneghini, from whom she has been separated for eleven years.

From Time Magazine Archive

Says a Vatican spokesman: "They must de- Italianize their terms to grow in the world."

From Time Magazine Archive

Thus it will be seen that efforts were required to Italianize these places.

From The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 by Henry Baerlein

The inside track to a job in the Metropolitan Opera Company used to turn on an Italianized name and recognized vocal experience, usually in Milan.

From Time Magazine Archive

He Italianized the middle name in college--"I hated Francis," he says--but he's only half Italian.

From Time Magazine Archive

To prevent his English from becoming too Italianized, he makes yearly trips to New York City, where he consults with his most "nurturing" publisher, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich's Helen Wolff.

From Time Magazine Archive

Inigo Jones, whose proper name was Ynyr, which in his travels in Italy, he Italianized into Inigo, was born at Llanrwst, Denbighshire, about the year 1572. 

From A Biographical Sketch of some of the Most Eminent Individuals which the Principality of Wales has produced since the Reformation by Robert Williams

Nordica; Pat Foley changed into Signor Foli; and when Ellen Mitchell became great, she dropped the old name and Italianized it into Melba.

From A Pirate of Parts by Richard Neville

Not only was the typical Frenchman's mood even sourer than usual, but there were numerous signs that French political life, and daily life for that matter, was Italianizing at the edges.

From Time Magazine Archive

One of the most ridiculous instances of Italianizing was in the case of Mr. John Clarke, of Brooklyn, who became Signor Giovanni Chiari di Broccolini.

From Famous Singers of To-day and Yesterday by Henry C. Lahee

In the course of Italianizing the tale of Roland, the native dialects made their first effort to assume a literary form.

From Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature Part 1 (of 2) by John Addington Symonds

The present custom of Italianizing English names as the only process by which they can be made fit for presentation to the public is much more modern than is generally known.

From The Mapleson Memoirs, vol II 1848-1888 by James H. Mapleson

They probably thought that they were Italianizing such names.

From Society for Pure English Tract 4 The Pronunciation of English Words Derived from the Latin by John Sargeaunt

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