What does exoticise mean?
To exoticise is to present or perceive something as exotic — thrillingly foreign, unusual, or picturesque — rather than as ordinary or familiar. The verb is most common in cultural criticism, where it names a particular kind of distortion: travel writing, film, advertising, and art can all exoticise people and places by framing them through an outsider's gaze that stresses strangeness over shared humanity. Because of this, exoticise usually carries a disapproving connotation; scholars of postcolonial thought use it to describe how dominant cultures turn others into spectacle. The word derives ultimately from the Greek exo, meaning 'outside', via Latin and English exotic. Its American spelling is exoticize, while British English favours exoticise, and it forms related nouns such as exoticism and exoticization. Knowing the word gives a precise name for a subtle but pervasive habit of representation.
verbTo portray or regard something or someone as exotic — that is, as excitingly foreign, unusual, or picturesque — often in a way that emphasizes otherness and difference from the observer's own culture.
- To represent or perceive a person, place, or culture as attractively strange or foreign, especially in a way that distorts or stereotypes it.
- (More generally) to lend something an air of exotic charm or strangeness.
"The travel brochure exoticises the fishing village, presenting its poverty as quaint charm."
"Critics accused the film of exoticising the city, reducing its residents to colourful backdrops."
"Early colonial painters tended to exoticise landscapes they barely understood."
Once you learn the word exoticise, you start noticing it everywhere — in travel ads, films, and magazines that turn real people and places into decorative 'otherness'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of exoticise
Exoticise is formed from the adjective exotic plus the verb-forming suffix -ise, on the model of verbs like romanticise. Exotic comes from Latin exoticus, borrowed from Greek exotikos, meaning 'foreign' or 'from outside', itself derived from exo ('outside'). The verb arose in modern English, gaining particular currency in twentieth-century critical and academic discourse.
Related word forms
How exoticise is actually used
The word carries strongly negative critical connotations, particularly in academic writing on postcolonialism, media studies, and cultural criticism, where exoticising is treated as a form of misrepresentation. The British spelling is -ise; American usage prefers exoticize. It appears almost exclusively in formal or analytical registers.
Easily confused with exoticise
Eroticise means to give something sexual connotations or charge, while exoticise means to portray it as alluringly foreign; the two overlap in tone but differ in meaning.