Posterizing

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Reducing a photograph or picture to a few flat tones and bold areas of color ; covering a wall, board or public surface with printed posters
2. Turning an image into a stark, graphic effect with only a handful of colors ; plastering a space with advertising or notices printed on paper sheets
3. Transforming a picture so its shading breaks into distinct blocks of color ; pasting printed bills and placards across a surface for display

Etymology: The most surprising thing about this word is that its basketball sense is the newer and more famous one, while its original sense belongs to the printing trade. "Posterize" was formed from "poster" plus the verb-forming suffix "-ize", meaning to make or treat in a certain way. The earliest use was technical: to reduce the number of colours in an image, so that a photograph became a few flat tones and bold areas, which is how posters were produced in the era of limited printing inks. The basketball sense, to score a slam dunk by leaping over one or more opponents, came later and is a figurative extension of the same idea. The action is so spectacular that it seems worthy of being printed on a poster, so the verb now describes a dunk that humiliates the defenders beneath it. Its use in sports reporting is the sense most English speakers meet today.