Usage 1: E. H. Gombrich ('Sense of Order' 1979) suggests that to see a wavy line on a piece of paper as rippling water, mountains, or a fluttering ribbon is reification but to see it as a living serpent is anthropomorphism. Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse are personifications, the portrayal of animals as humans. The noun, as you see, is "reification."

Suggested usage: C. E. Osgood wrote in 'Method & Theory in Experimental Psychology' (1953): "The second hindrance to objectivity is the ubiquitous tendency to reify the word, to assume the word itself somehow carries its own meaning." This is a common error for when we speak, only sounds travel from speaker to hearer, not meanings. The sound and meaning of words are therefore two discrete (distinct) phenomena that must be matched independently in the heads of the speaker and hearer. Because the hearer does not always match the sound of a word coming from the speaker with the same meaning that the speaker does, we sometimes misunderstand one another. It is easy to reify a word as a unique object that always has the same sound and meaning, but that is not the case.

Etymology: From Latin res "thing" also found in "real" and "republic" from res publica "thing of the people"— Russian "respublika." (Today’s word may be a reification of Agorophile D. Gale, who enjoys discussing words from around the world with those of similar inclinations in the YD Agora.)