Image vs Imagine

Question

Hello everyone,As I know, Image is a noun and Imagine is a verbBut, my friends use image as a verb.So can you help me define "Image"?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

You are right, and your friends are not.

The only time that I hear 'image' used as a verb is in connection with medical contexts like working with X-rays, CRT scans. MRIs, etc.

Clive

JohnParis · Answer

Image may be used as a verb.

From the Oxford dictionary:

Image: to form a mental picture or idea of : it is possible for us to image a society in which no one committed crime.

However, it's very awkward unless employed as follows:

verb[with object]

make a representation of the external form of:artworks which imaged women’s bodies
make a visual representation of (something) by scanning it with a detector or electromagnetic beam: (as noun imaging) medical imaging
Computing make an exact copy of (a computer’s hard disk):the hard disk drive should be imaged using a specialized bitstream backup product
form a mental picture or idea of: it is possible for us to image a society in which no one committed crime

Regards, John

Hoangnam2008 · Answer

Thanks so much ^^

Anonymous · Answer

Clive and John are of course right, but only on a highly restricted thus and rather unrealistic level. They do not account for the drift of meaning that causes the continuous development of language. While the word "image" is of course a noun, and also a verb in medical and computational language, it is quickly being both "reimagined" and then "reimaged" for more general and philosophical use: it is certainly a word tied up closely with the verb "imagine", but to the extent that we do not only "imagine" our ideas about the world or the world itself that we perceive, we do "image" them very actively. This use of the verb "image" will become increasingly common as we continue to "reimage" our existential status in the world, particularly as "features" of an ecological and cosmological body rather than as "masters" over a dumb and inferior immanence. Such a renewed use of the verb "image" is something that people like Clive and John should -- and, understanding how destructive we are becoming to our native environment, must -- begin to consider seriously.

Clive · Answer

I'll certainly give your opinion the attention it deserves.

Image vs Imagine

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