Californication

English

Etymology

Blend of California +‎ fornication, from 1960s. Popularized by the use as title for a song (1999) and a TV series (2007–2014).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkælɪˈfɔːnɪˈkeɪʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkælɪˈfɔɹnɪˈkeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

Californication (uncountable)

1. (US, derogatory, urban studies) Large-scale development of land; urban sprawl.
   • a. 1981, Coda: Poets and Writers Newsletter, page 17:

     It's also culturally unique, its natives resisting many elements of "californication", the "glintzy" urban sprawl typified by Los Angeles.

   • 2000 March 3, D. J. Waldie, “Do the Voters Really Hate Sprawl?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Thirty years ago, voters in Portland, Ore., adopted strict growth limits to prevent “Californication” of their landscape. Circumscribed by the nation's first “urban growth boundary,” the Portland region made itself an artificial island on the land with the explicit goal of not becoming another L.A.

   • 2003, Dan Flores, The Natural West, page 167:

     If the Rocky Mountain West ... is today runing scared of growth and Californication ... the adjourning Great Plains are an equally large slice ... that do not share that particular fear.

2. The adoption of practices and beliefs associated with California, in particular Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
   • 1992, Ien Ang, John Hartley, “Useful Astonishment”, in Cultural Studies, page 458:

     Indeed, if popular culture can be said to be dispersed in a process of global Californication, then no less should intellectual culture be seen as the product of the Routledgification of the world[.]

   • 1999, “Californication”, in Californication, performed by Red Hot Chili Peppers:

     A teenage bride with a baby inside getting high on information / And buy me a star on the boulevard, it's Californication

   • 2003 August 14, Timothy Garton Ash, “God's crucible”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     So we should learn from the Americans. What Europe needs is more Californication.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Californication.

Related terms

• Californianization
• Californicate

See also

• Los Angelization

Further reading

• californication (word) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia