Before the digital age, "pixilated" meant mildly insane, bewildered, bemused, whimsical, or tipsy. Dating to 1848, it was an Americanism originally spelled "pixelated," a combination of pixie + -ated, a suffix meaning acted upon in a specified way, thus behaving as though led by pixies. It was perhaps a variant of "pixie-led." On the other hand, "pixelated" refers to overenlarging a digital image in order to blur it, but its spelling is usually colloquially "pixilated." In other words, "pixelated" evolved into "pixilated," and "pixilated" is evolving into "pixelated."
Before the digital age, "pixilated" meant mildly insane, bewildered, bemused, whimsical, or tipsy. Dating to 1848, it was an Americanism originally spelled "pixelated," a combination of pixie + -ated, a suffix meaning acted upon in a specified way, thus behaving as though led by pixies. It was perhaps a variant of "pixie-led." On the other hand, "pixelated" refers to overenlarging a digital image in order to blur it, but its spelling is usually colloquially "pixilated." In other words, "pixelated" evolved into "pixilated," and "pixilated" is evolving into "pixelated."
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