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Change log entry 32160
Processed by: richwarm (2010-11-12 22:57:54 UTC)
Comment: << review queue entry 31520 >>
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E7%90%86%E6%83%B3%E5%8C%96/104610

Editor: 理想化 means "to idealize". Nciku's definition of 理想化 is really just a (poor) attempt at explaining
what "idealize" means.

Often, nciku's supposedly C-E "definitions" are really attempts at "English definitions of C-E definitions."

"to idealize" is about having a false perception (or deliberately ignoring discrepancies), not necessarily
about making an assumption. Look at nciku's own example: 在她丈夫死后,她极力理想化她丈夫。The
woman is not *assuming* that her husband was faultless; she has a perception that he was faultless.

What is meant by "one's subjective desirability"? Do they mean "one's perception of one's own
desirability"? Clearly, that would be wrong. No, I think they mean "one's perception of another person or
thing as desirable." But that would be wrong, too. It's more like "one's perception of another person or
thing as perfect."

So, in my opinion, what nciku did was this: they took a succinct definition ("to idealize") and made it
verbose, incorrect and barely comprehensible ("To assume based on one's subjective desirability
regardless of reality"). What they meant was "to think of someone or something as perfect, regardless of
imperfections that exist in reality".

We prefer succinct.
Diff:
- 理想化 理想化 [li3 xiang3 hua4] /idealistic (usually in a negative sense)/to idealize/
# + 理想化 理想化 [li3 xiang3 hua4] /idealistic (usually in a negative sense)/to idealize/to assume based on one's subjective desirability regardless of reality/
+ 理想化 理想化 [li3 xiang3 hua4] /to idealize/
By MDBG 2025
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