colonize

Etymology

It is formed from English colony + -ize.^[2][3][4][5] The revised OED also allows that the base may be the etymon of the noun, Latin colōnia.^[2] Etymonline instead takes the verb from the stem of colōnus (“tiller of the soil, farmer”),^[6] and Klein derives the sense "settle with colonists" from the Latin noun and the sense "form a colony" from the English one.^[7] The Latin words go back through colō (“to cultivate, till; inhabit”) to Proto-Indo-European *kwel- (“to revolve, move round; sojourn, dwell”).^[6][8] French coloniser and German kolonisieren, both meaning to found colonies and both of the late 18th century, are probably modelled on the English verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To settle in a place and form a colony there, used intransitively: 1593, in G. Harvey's Pierces Supererogation.^[2] This is the OED's revised date; other dictionaries begin with the transitive verb, in 1622 according to Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[4] in the 1620s according to Etymonline,^[6] and in the early 17th century according to the Shorter Oxford.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The earliest uses are about people settling a place and appropriating it: Bacon, before 1626, has the transitive sense of settling a region with colonists.^[2] Etymonline dates "to migrate to and settle in" to the 1630s.^[6] From the 1790s the verb could mean bringing another country under foreign rule without any settlement there, as of the French in Egypt or the British in India,^[6] and the OED records it of subjecting a people to colonial rule from 1796;^[2] Etymonline thinks that this sense comes directly from colony.^[6] A biological use, of an organism spreading into a new habitat, appeared in 1781, in J. Barbut's work on Linnaeus's insects,^[2] and an American political sense followed in 1838, of placing supporters in a district where their votes could decide a close election.^[2][3] In the 20th century the verb extended to placing someone secretly in an organization to spread a party's views (1929),^[2] and to the shaping of the minds and culture of colonized peoples (1965).^[2]

Timeline

• 1593 – intransitive, to settle in a place, to form a colony.^[2]
• before 1626 – transitive, to settle a region with colonists, in Bacon.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1622.^[4]
• 1735 – to establish people as colonists in a colony.^[2]
• 1781 – of an organism, to spread into an area or habitat.^[2]
• 1796 – to bring the people of another country under political control.^[2]
• 1838 – in United States politics, to place supporters in a district to sway an election.^[2][3]
• 1929 – to place a person secretly in an organization to promote a party's views.^[2]
• 1965 – to shape the minds or culture of a colonized people.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To establish a colony in a place, or to send colonists to it; to settle it as colonists: Traders from the coast colonized the river valley.^[4][9][2]
2. To bring a people or country under the political control of another state.^[2][9]
3. To settle people in a colony.^[4][2][3]
4. Of plants, animals or other organisms, to spread into and become established in a new area, habitat or host: Ferns soon colonized the old quarry.^[9][2][3]
5. (United States politics) To place party supporters in a district to affect the result of an election.^[2][3]
6. To affect the minds or culture of a people through colonial rule.^[2]

Word family

• colonizer
• colonizable
• colonizability
• colonization
• colonizationist
• decolonize
• recolonize
• uncolonize

Related words

• colonial
• colonialism
• colonist
• colony

Usage notes

The spelling colonise is chiefly British.^[4][5]

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 w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins