Customizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Changing or adapting something to fit personal requirements or tastes
2. Altering a product or service to meet specific individual demands
3. Tailoring an object or system to match unique user preferences

Etymology: "Customizing" is the present participle of "customize," so its history is that of the verb. The verb is built from "custom" plus the suffix "-ize," which turns a noun into a verb meaning to make, treat, or adapt something in a particular way. "Custom" itself goes back through Anglo-French and Old French to Latin "consuetudo," meaning habit or familiarity, the same root that gives English "costume" in some of its senses and "consuetude," a rare word for an established habit. The verb appears in print in American English in 1934, so it is a relatively recent coinage compared with the centuries-old noun. In that period, the sense of having a thing made to one's own specifications was spreading in the American marketplace, particularly for cars and other manufactured goods, and the verb captured that idea of adapting a standard product to fit a particular buyer's habits and tastes.

Synonyms: tailoring, personalizing, modifying, adapting, altering