colexify

English

Etymology

From co- +‎ lexify.

Verb

colexify (third-person singular simple present colexifies, present participle colexifying, simple past and past participle colexified)

1. To ascribe multiple meanings to the same word.

   Synonym: coexpress

   Antonyms: dislexify, distinguish

   • 2022 June 9, Alexandre François, “Lexical tectonics: Mapping structural change in patterns of lexification”, in Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft‎, page 95:

     A language colexifies two distinct senses if it can express them using the same lexical form. For example, English colexifies ‘wood as material’ and ‘firewood’, because it can designate both these senses using the same word wood. (The notion of colexification is not whether a language must express two senses identically, but whether it can.) […] In sum, the two senses in question are dislexified in Spanish, but colexified in English. […] A language may dislexify two senses at a certain point in history, but its descendant may colexify them, or vice versa.

Related terms

• colexification