colonization

Etymology

It is formed from English colonize + -ation,^[2][3] although the Shorter Oxford derives it from colonist.^[4] The verb colonize is from colony (or its Latin source) and the suffix -ize,^[2][5] and colony is from Latin colōnia (“settled land, farm, landed estate”), from colōnus (“tenant farmer, settler”), from colō (“to cultivate, till; to inhabit”).^[3] Etymonline takes the root to be Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to revolve, move round; dwell”).^[3] French colonisation (1769) is probably from English.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The establishing of a colony or colonies in a place: 1747, in Samuel Boyse's Historical Review of the Transactions of Europe.^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to 1758,^[3] Merriam-Webster to 1766,^[5] and Klein credits its first use to Edmund Burke.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From 1751 the word also named the policy or principle of founding colonies.^[2] In 1791 Jeremy Bentham used it for settling a group of people in a colony,^[2] and in American history it came to mean the movement to resettle freed slaves and free Black people in Africa, promoted by the American Colonization Society, founded in December 1816; a supporter was a colonizationist (1831).^[3][5] In American politics of 1838 it meant placing party supporters in a district where their votes would count.^[2][5] The infiltration of a group by militants, now a rare sense, followed in 1929.^[2][5] Biology took the word in 1863, in Herbert Spencer, for the spread of a species into a new area or host,^[2][6][4] and later, in 1950, for keeping a breeding colony of an insect in a laboratory.^[2]

Timeline

• 1747 – the founding of a colony or colonies.^[2]
• 1751 – the policy of founding colonies.^[2]
• 1791 – the settling of a group of people in a colony.^[2]
• 1838 – placing voters in a district to sway an election (United States).^[2]
• 1863 – the spread of a species into a new area or host.^[2][6]
• 1929 – the infiltration of an organization for political ends.^[2]
• 1950 – the keeping of a breeding colony in a laboratory.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of establishing colonies, or the state of being colonized: the Dutch colonization of the Cape.^[5][8][2]
2. (biology) The spread of a plant, animal or microorganism into an area or host where it was not found before.^[2][4]
3. (United States history) The resettlement, chiefly in Africa, of freed slaves and free Black Americans.^[5][2][3]
4. (United States politics, historical) The placing of nonresident supporters in a doubtful electoral district so that they can vote there.^[5][2][4]
5. (rare) The infiltration of a group by militants to change its direction.^[5][2]

Word family

• colonizationist
• recolonization

Related words

• colonial
• colonialism
• colonist
• colony
• colonize
• decolonization
• cultivate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt