customize

Etymology

It is formed from English custom + -ize.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED takes it from the noun custom,^[2][5] and Etymonline from its adjective use, made to order for individual customers, recorded by 1830.^[4] The noun custom is from Old French costume, from Vulgar Latin *consuetumen, from Latin cōnsuētūdō (“habit, usage”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make or alter something to a customer's own requirements: 1920, in an advertisement in a St Louis newspaper, the Post-Dispatch.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb began in American English.^[4][7][5] The OED records the more general sense, to adapt something to suit a particular person or task, alongside the commercial one;^[2][8] the Concise Oxford gives only the general sense.^[9]

Timeline

• 1920 – to make or modify to a customer's specifications.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1923, Etymonline to 1934, and Dictionary.com to 1930–35.^[3][4][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To build, fit or alter something according to individual specifications: They customized the van for camping trips.^[3][8][2]
2. More generally, to adapt something to suit a particular person or task: You can customize the toolbar.^[2][9]

Word family

• customization
• customizer
• customizable
• semicustomized

Related words

• consuetude
• costume
• custom
• customary
• customer
• accustom

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press