Corporatize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To change an organization into a corporation or to implement corporate practices within its framework
2. To convert an entity into a corporate structure or to integrate corporate methods in its operations
3. To reorganize an entity so it functions as a corporation or to apply business-style management principles within an organization

Etymology: "Corporatize" is a plain formation: the adjective "corporate" with the verb-making suffix "-ize" attached. "Corporate" itself comes from the Latin "corporatus," the past participle of "corporare," meaning to form into a body, and "-ize" traces back through Late Latin "-izare" and Ancient Greek "-izein," which turned nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat in the manner of." English took the suffix in through Middle French "-iser" and Middle English "-isen," and it has been one of the language's most productive verb-makers ever since. The result is a word built for a specific job: describing the act of reorganizing something, such as a public agency, a hospital, or a school, so that it runs on the model of a business corporation. Its meaning is therefore the reverse of how the original word once sounded to a reader, since "corporate" describes a body of people united into one legal entity, while "corporatize" describes that body being reshaped around market logic.

Synonyms: commercialize, privatize, institutionalize