English

Verb

countify ‎(third-person singular simple present countifies, present participle countifying, simple past and past participle countified)

1. (transitive, linguistics, rare) To use as a count noun.
   • 1965, Robert P. Stockwell, Jean Donald Bowen, and John Watson Martin, The Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226775046, page 81,

     We can, for instance, “countify” mass nouns which come to be associated with a standard counter or container. […] Also in distinguishing some particular kind or type of the mass noun substance (by a limiting modifier of some kind), it is possible to readily countify: […]

   • 1989, Francis Jeffry Pelletier and Lenhart K. Schubert, “Mass Expressions”, in Dov M. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (editors), Handbook of Philosophical Logic, Second Edition, Volume 10, Springer (2003), ISBN 1-4020-1644-1,

     Any stuff for which there are standard portions used for whatever purposes will immediately become countified: three beers, an ice cream, an entertainment, etc.

   • 1992, James F. Allen and Lenhart K. Schubert, “Language and Discourse in the TRAINS Project”, in Andrew Ortony, John Slack, and Oliviero Stock (editors), Communication From an Artificial Intelligence Perspective: Theoretical and Applied Issues, NATO ASI Series F: Computer and Systems Sciences, Volume 100, Springer, ISBN 3540558810, page 104,

     Under deviant vocabulary we include “verbing” of nouns (He tricycled away), and perhaps “massifying” of count nouns and “countifying” of mass nouns. (Note that the preceding sentence itself contains instances of deviant vocabulary in scare quotes.) “Massifying” and “countifying” are illustrated respectively by A year ago they started digging the hole for his house; A year later, there's still more hole than house; and ^[sic] How many orange juice ^[sic] will that give us?.

Related terms

• countification

See also

• massify