revolutionize

Etymology

It is formed from English revolution + -ize,^[2][3][4][5] and is also spelled “revolutionise” in Britain.^[4][6] The Shorter Oxford instead derives it from revolutionary with the suffix, after French révolutionner.^[7] The OED compares Dutch revolutioneeren (from 1799) and German revolutionieren (late 18th century), both first used in politics and only later in general senses.^[2] The noun goes back to Late Latin revolūtiō (“a revolving”), from revolvō (“to turn, roll back”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fill a person or thing with revolutionary ideas, to make revolutionary: 1795, in a translation of D'Ivernois's account of the recent revolution at Geneva.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to the decade of the French Revolution: from 1795 to 1796 it was used of making people revolutionary and of bringing a country under a revolutionary government,^[2][7] a sense Etymonline dates to 1797.^[3] Almost at once it was extended to changing anything completely or fundamentally (1798 in the OED, by 1799 in Etymonline),^[2][3] which is now its main sense.^[6][4] An intransitive use, to engage in revolutionary activity, lasted from 1817 to 1874.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1795 – to fill with revolutionary ideas; to make revolutionary.^[2][4]
• 1796 – to bring a country under a revolutionary form of government.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1797.^[3]
• 1798 – to change a thing completely or fundamentally.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1799.^[3]
• 1817 – intransitive, to engage in revolutionary activity (obsolete after 1874).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To change something completely or radically; to transform: Cheap printing revolutionized the spread of news.^[6][4][2]
2. To fill people with revolutionary ideas.^[6][4][2]
3. To bring about a political revolution in a country, or to overthrow its government.^[6][4][2]

Word family

• revolutionizer
• unrevolutionized

Related words

• revolution
• revolutionary
• revolve

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 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press