Colonization

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of establishing settlements and asserting authority over a territory inhabited by a different group of people
2. A complex process involving the occupation and cultural influence of a foreign land through settlement and governance
3. The process of settling in and taking control of a new area while imposing cultural, social, and political structures on the indigenous population

Etymology: The root of "colonization" is the Latin "colonus," a farmer or settler who worked land, from "colere," to cultivate. Ancient Rome used "colonia" for a settlement planted with citizens on conquered or newly claimed ground, so the idea of cultivating land and the idea of settling it were always joined. The word has therefore carried agricultural sense from the start: a colony was a place that had been tilled and occupied, not just visited. English took "colony" from Latin through Middle English in the later Middle Ages, and "colonize" was formed from it with the suffix "-ize," which came through Late Latin and Old French. "Colonization" then adds the suffix "-ation," which entered English through Old French and marks the act or process of doing something. In practice, the noun names the whole process of establishing settlement on new territory, not any single moment of arrival.

Synonyms: settlement, inhabitation, occupation

Antonyms: decolonization, abandonment