globalization

Etymology

It is formed from English global + -ization, perhaps after French globalisation, which the OED dates to 1904.^[2] Etymonline instead takes it as a noun of action from globalize.^[3] Wilton finds the French word in 1929, coined by the Belgian psychologist Jean-Ovide Decroly.^[4] global is from globe and -al,^[3] and globe is from Latin globus (“round mass, sphere, ball”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1930 W. Boyd and M. M. Mackenzie's Towards New Education used it for what Decroly called the "function of globalization", a psychological function that, the book says, was studied as wholeness in America and as Gestalt in Germany.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb globalize entered political language in 1936–37, in Samuel Bemis's diplomatic history of the United States, for widening a policy from two countries to many.^[4][2] By the 1940s the noun was used of the worldwide spread of cultural ideas and problems, as in a 1944 article in the Chicago Defender.^[4] Merriam-Webster's first known use is from 1951,^[5] and Etymonline dates the noun to 1961 and the main modern, economic sense of the verb to 1959.^[3] The adjective global had meant "worldwide" since 1892, after a development in French.^[3] Collins describes the emergence of a single world market dominated by multinational companies as a development since the 1980s.^[6]

Timeline

• 1904 – French globalisation, according to the OED.^[2]
• 1929 – French globalisation, in Decroly.^[4]
• 1930 – a psychological function of perceiving wholes.^[2][4]
• 1936–37 – the verb globalize.^[4][2]
• 1944 – the worldwide spread of social problems and ideas.^[4]
• 1951 – first known use in Merriam-Webster.^[5]
• 1961 – first date in Etymonline.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of making something worldwide in scope, or the state of being so.^[5][2]
2. The growth of an increasingly integrated world economy, marked by free trade, the free movement of capital and the use of cheaper labour abroad, and dominated by multinational companies.^[5][6]
3. The process by which a company or other organization expands to operate internationally.^[6][2]
4. The opening of financial and investment markets to international operation, largely through deregulation and better communications.^[6]

Related words

• global
• globe
• globalize

Usage notes

In British English it is also spelled globalisation.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 e f g h Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "globalization", 4 November 2020
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House