Colonify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To send settlers to found new communities in a distant land ; to bring a territory under the domination of an outside power
2. To set up settlements in an area far from home ; to impose colonial government and control over a region and its people
3. To plant a colony on new ground ; to place a territory under foreign political and economic rule

Etymology: "Colonify" is a formation from "colony" plus the verb-forming suffix "-fy," which comes through Old French "-fier" from Latin "-ficare," a combining form meaning "to make or do." "Colony" itself traces to Latin "colonia," a settlement of Roman citizens or veterans established on conquered or newly acquired land, derived from "colonus," a farmer or settler, from "colere," to cultivate or inhabit. The verb "colonify" appears in English in the 19th century and is attested in the sense of planting settlers on new ground. Its meaning has since widened to cover the political and economic control of a territory by an outside power, a shift that follows the history of colonial empires rather than any change in the word's own structure.

Synonyms: colonize, settle, populate

Antonyms: decolonize