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nationalize, v.

DRAFT REVISION Mar. 2010

Brit. /nalz/, /naz/, /nanz/, /na()nlz/, U.S. /næ()nlaz/  Forms: 17- nationalize, 18- nationalise. [< NATIONAL adj. + -IZE suffix. Compare French nationaliser (1792).] 

    1. trans.

    a. To give a national character to; to make distinctively national. Also intr. Now rare.

1799 J. BARLOW in Edinburgh Advertiser 1 Feb. 5/3 The enmity of the old President towards France was now considered as nationalized in America. 1801 Ann. Reg. 1800 (Otridge ed.) Hist. Europe 35/2 We wish to nationalize the republic, they to establish only their own party. 1843 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 54 26 ‘Rule Britannia’,..now become a national song... Long before it was nationalizedif one may use such a wordby Englishmen [etc.]. 1851 ‘L. MARIOTTI’ Italy 59 The very government of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom might be..nationalized. 1870 J. R. LOWELL Among my Bks. (1873) 1st Ser. 226 He took what may be called cosmopolitan traditions,..and nationalized them. 1922 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 July 483/2 The Turk, still thinking in terms of religions,..suddenly determined to Westernize and nationalize.

    b. To make into or like a separate nation. Obs. rare.

1801 F. AMES Wks. (1809) 142 New-England..of all colonies that ever were founded the largest, the most assimilated, and, to use the modern jargon, nationalized.

    2. trans. To naturalize; to admit into, or make part of, a nation. Also refl. and intr. Obs.

1809 N. PINKNEY Trav. South of France 41 There are many resident English, who have been nationalized by express edict. 1861 M. PATTISON Ess. (1889) I. 32 Only Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Danes..have succeeded in nationalizing themselves here. 1889 G. GISSING Nether World III. iii. 64 But it was not only at stage-triumph that Clara aimed; glorious in itself, this was also to serve her as a means of becoming nationalised among that race of beings whom birth and breeding exalt above the multitude. 1891 Sat. Rev. 4 July 1/2 The curious plan of keeping Russia for the Russians by forcing all foreign ‘colonists’ to nationalize or quit.

    3. trans. To bring (land, property, an industry, etc.) under state control or ownership. Also intr.

1869 Daily News 21 Oct., It was ‘Bosh’ to talk of nationalising the land to starving thousands. 1874 H. FAWCETT Man. Polit. Econ. (ed. 4) II. xi. 296 After the land and the other instruments of production have been nationalised. 1881 G. C. BRODRICK Eng. Land & Eng. Landlords 105 It is a perfectly intelligible proposition that all the land in the kingdom ought to be ‘nationalized’. 1929 Daily Express 7 Nov. 2/5 Every industry I want to nationalize must be a business proposition. 1953 O. CAROE Soviet Empire xi. 175 Land and water had been nationalized and..redistributed in an arbitrary fashion. 1973 W. HAGGARD Old Masters iii. 36 Let them come in and build their railway... In a year or two he'd arrange some quarrel..and finally nationalize. 2000 D. BROOKS Bobos in Paradise 259 They are perpetually coming up with radical and loopy ideasdestroy the IRS, nationalize health care.

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