naturalize

naturalize

English

Alternative forms

• naturalise

Etymology

From Middle French naturaliser; surface analysis, natural +‎ -ize.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnæt͡ʃəɹəˌlaɪz/, /ˈnæt͡ʃɹəˌlaɪz/

Verb

naturalize (third-person singular simple present naturalizes, present participle naturalizing, simple past and past participle naturalized)

1. To grant citizenship to someone not born a citizen.
2. To acclimatize an animal or plant.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 8, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, OCLC 223202227:

     Its wearer suggested that pears and peaches might yet be naturalized in the New England climate.

3. To make natural

   Custom naturalizes labour or study.

4. To limit explanations of a phenomenon to naturalistic ones and exclude supernatural ones.
5. (linguistics) To make (a word) a natural part of the language, using the native homologue of each phoneme (and often for each morpheme) of the imported word (e.g., native inflections).

   In English, foreign words are typically written in italics until they are naturalized.

   English speakers have naturalized the French word "café".

   English orthography often (but not invariably) drops the diacritics from words that it has naturalized from other languages.

   See also: loanword, calque, unadapted borrowing

6. To study nature.
   • 1854, Somerton, The heiress of Somerton, page 226:

     Well, any way, Doctor, we will make an appointment for a whole day here next spring ; we will botanize, herbarize and naturalize to our hearts' content, from morn till night."

Antonyms

• denaturalize, exile (verb), expatriate (verb), other (verb), supernaturalize

Derived terms

• naturalized (adj), naturalization

Translations

to grant citizenship

Bulgarian: натурализирам (naturaliziram) Chinese: Mandarin: 归化 (zh) (guīhuà) Finnish: myöntää kansalaisuus, naturalisoida (fi) French: naturaliser (fr) German: einbürgern (de) Hindi: नागरिक बनाना (nāgrik banānā) Hungarian: honosít (hu), állampolgárságot ad Irish: eadóirsigh, éadaoirsigh, saoránacht a thabhairt do Maori: whakatangatawhenua Portuguese: naturalizar (pt) Romanian: naturaliza (ro) Spanish: naturalizar (es) Swedish: naturalisera (sv)

to acclimatize an animal or plant — see acclimatize

to make to natural

Finnish: luonnollistaa Hungarian: természetessé tesz, magától értetődővé tesz Portuguese: naturalizar (pt)

to limit explanations of a phenomenon to naturalistic ones

Finnish: selittää luonnollisella tavalla

linguistics: to make a natural part of a language

Bulgarian: заимствам (bg) (zaimstvam) Finnish: naturalisoida (fi) Hungarian: meghonosít (hu)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Irish: (please verify) eadóirsigh

References

1. "naturalize" in Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.