Denationalise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To transfer ownership of a business or asset from government control to private individuals or entities
2. The process of restoring something to private ownership after it has been owned by the state
3. To return control of a company or industry from government hands to individual or corporate proprietors

Etymology: "Denationalise" is a plain formation: the prefix "de-", meaning "reversal" or "removal", attached to "nationalise." In this sense, "de-" undoes the action the base word describes, so to denationalise is to take a nationalised industry or company out of state ownership and return it to private hands. The word was borrowed from French "dénationaliser," which was built the same way from "de-" and "nationaliser." The base word carries the older history. "Nationalise" comes from "national," which in English goes back to the Latin "natio," a word for a group of people sharing birth or origin, from "nasci," "to be born." From that sense of a shared birth community, "national" came to mean relating to a whole nation, and "nationalise" came to mean bringing something under the ownership or control of the nation's state.

Synonyms: privatize, liberalize, decontrol

Antonyms: nationalize, state, control