reify

reify [ˈriəˌfaɪ, ˈreɪ-] v. t.

1.) To regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).

Etymology: Latin res, re-, thing; + -fy.

"At this point let me say something about the terminology of 'forces' that I have been using in discussing Newtonian physics. It may be natural to present Newtonian physics in terms of reified forces in this way, but it is not mandatory" (Thinking About Consciousness, David Papineau, 2002).

(Scuola di Atene, Raffaello Sanzio, 1510) ____________________________________________________

There's been some interest in a weekly competition in which people try to use all the words-of-the-day for that week in a paragraph and then a winner is chosen. I'll have to work out the details about this, but stay tuned!