Familiarize

v. [f. FAMILIAR a. + -IZE.] trans. To make familiar.

  1.  trans. To make (a thing, rarely a person) familiar or well-known.

a. 1639.  Wotton, Let., Reliq. Wotton. (1672), 478. Intending … to familiarize it [final resignation of ourselves] between us as much as I can.

1774.  Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, xxi. (1840), II. 271. Wethamstede … being desirous of familiarising the history of his patron saint to the monks of his convent.

1846.  Joyce, Sci. Dial., i. 2. Your drawing compasses may familiarize to your mind the idea of an angle.

1875.  W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 14. Horses and hounds recognized that shout, familiarized to them by many a good run.

  † b.  To render familiar or accustomed; to divest of strangeness.

1608.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, 630.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 159, 1 Sept., ¶ 3. The Genius smiled upon me with a Look of Compassion and Affability that familiarized him to my Imagination.

1768.  Johnson, Pref. Shaks., Wks. IX. 245. Shakespeare approximates the remote, and familiarizes the wonderful.

1779.  Cowper, Letter to Joseph Hill, 11 April, Wks. 1837, XV. 45. Long habit and custom are able to familiarize to us things much more disagreeable than this.

  2.  a. To put (a person) on a footing of intimacy. (rare.) † b. To render (a person’s manner) familiar or affable. (obs.) c. refl. and intr. for refl. To adopt a familiar and courteous demeanor. Also in a bad sense: ‘To make oneself cheap.’ Now rare.

  a.  1754.  Richardson, Grandison, V. xvii. 96. I should be glad (so would Clementina, I make no doubt) to be familiarized to the Ladies of your family before she goes to England.

1858.  Hawthorne, The Ancestral Footstep (1883), 501. Middleton on his arrival becomes aquainted with the old Hospitaller, and is familiarized at the Hospital.

  b.  1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 127, 31 Jan., ¶ 9. For the Cure of this particular Sort of Madness [haughtiness] it will be necessary to break through all forms with him, and familiarize his Carriage by the Use of a good Cudgel.

1761–2.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxxi. 321. The prince … was noted for an address so cold, dry, and distant that it was very difficult for him, on account of any interest, to soften or familiarize it.

  c.  1685.  Gracian’s Courtier’s Orac., 163. He that familiarizes himself, presently loses the Superiority that his serious air gave him, and by consequent his Credit.

1697.  trans. C’tess D’Aunoy’s Trav. (1706), 22. She at length familiariz’d her self, and told me, ‘’Twas not through fear of any thing else but of displeasing me.’

a. 1734.  North, Lives, II. 418. He … familiarized with his equals, and gave no offence to his inferiors.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), IV. 157. We had familiarized to each other long ago.

1886.  C. A. Dougherty, The Transatlantic Captains, in Harper’s Mag., LXXIII., Aug., 377. Captain T. Cook, the present Commodore of this line, is another type of the reserved man who does not familiarize with his passengers.

  3.  To bring into familiar or common use; to popularize. Now rare.

1752.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 208, 14 March, ¶ 11. When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signification, I have familiarized the terms of philosophy, by applying them to popular ideas, but have rarely admitted any words not authorized by former writers; for I believe that whoever knows the English tongue in its present extent, will be able to express his thoughts without further help from other nations. Ibid. (1779–81), Lives of the British Poets, Pope, Wks. IV. 74. This mode of imitation, in which the ancients are familiarised, by adapting their sentiments to modern topics.

1807.  W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., V. 563/1. The discussion served to familiarize the words congress, general government, American army, and thus to prepare the very form of confederacy which was resorted to during the rebellion.

1834.  Brayley, Graph. & Hist. Illust., Pref. It was my wish to familiarize Archæological inquiries.

  b.  To give a familiar form to (a name).

1804.  W. Irving, Life & Lett. (1864), I. vi. 94. The old gentleman has likewise an invincible propensity to familiarize the names of people; it is always Tom Truxton, Kit Columbus, and Jack Styles with him, and he cannot tell you the name of the author of a book without Jacking or Gilling him.

  4.  To accustom (a person, one’s mind, etc.) to, † into, or to do (something); to habituate. Now rare.

1646.  Sir J. Temple, Irish Rebell., 7. They began to … suffer … their English followers to familiarize themselves into their beastly manners and customes.

1764.  Mem. Geo. Psalmanazar, 214. To make me exert my talents in inventing and familiarising myself to this pretended Formosan language and character, for fear my want of it should cause some unexpected discovery.

1830.  Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 22. By familiarising us in our progress towards truth to walk uprightly and straightforward on firm ground.

1833.  J. H. Newman, Lett. (1891), I. 483. To familiarise the imagination of the reader to an Apostolical state of the Church. Ibid. (1848), Loss & Gain, 239. Intending to familiarize my parishioners to it by little and little.

  b.  To make (a person or oneself) well acquainted, or to feel at ease, at home with.

a. 1687.  Petty, Pol. Arith., i. (1691), 17. He [Seaman] is familiarized with Hardships and Hazards.

1741.  J. Lawry & H. Heaton, Athenian Lett. (1792), I. 147. Having familiariz’d myself much of late with the hieroglyphical imagery.

1815.  Moore, Lalla R., Pref. (1850), 10. To … familiarise myself with its various treasures.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. ii. 98. Wolsey … familiarized Henry with the sense that a reformation was inevitable.

1863.  Tyndall, Heat, iii. 61. My object here is to familiarise your minds with the general conception of atomic motion.

  absol.  1830.  A. Fonblanque, England Under 7 Administr. (1837), III. 23. The first effect may be to startle, but the second will be to familiarise, which assists to a fair consideration.

  † 5.  To domesticate, tame (an animal). Cf. FAMILIAR a. Obs.

1634.  W. Tirwhyt, trans. Letters of Mounsieur de Balzac, 205. Since we are forced to live among savage creatures, we had neede have the industry either to familiarise or force them.

1682.  Norris, Hierocles, 34–5. The rational part is order’d by discipline and knowledge, but the irrational by custom and bodily formation, which is the method men take to tame and familiarize wild beasts.

  Hence Familiarized ppl. a., Familiarizer, one who familiarizes, Familiarizing ppl. a., Familiarizingly adv.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 241. This familiarized Book [Bible].

1726–7.  Swift, Gulliver, III. vii. I soon grew so familiariz’d to the sight of Spirits, that after the third or fourth time they gave me no emotion at all.

1832.  Lander, Adv. Niger, I. v. 215. Their faces had become familiarized to us.

1872.  Proctor, Ess. Astron., iii. 37. In the less dignified rôle of a familiariser he was not successful.

1876.  Black, Mad-cap V., viii. 73. She would have got familiarised with us, and stayed on indefinitely.

1890.  J. H. Stirling, Gifford Lect., x. 179. Jehovah, whom German and French Writers have taken of late, degradingly and I suppose familiarisingly, to call Jahve.