Dollarizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To convert an economy to use the currency of the United States as its legal tender
2. To establish a monetary system in which a foreign currency predominates over the local currency
3. To adopt the U.S. dollar for transactions and savings in a country, replacing or parallel to its national currency

Etymology: "Dollarize" is a plain formation: "dollar" with the suffix "-ize," which in English turns a noun into a verb meaning to make something conform to, or be converted into, that noun. The suffix itself has a long pedigree, travelling from ancient Greek through Late Latin and Middle French before reaching English, but the Germanic core of the word is the more striking part. "Dollar" descends from the Middle Low German and Dutch "daler," short for "Joachimsthaler," a silver coin minted from the 1520s in Joachimsthal, in what is now the Czech Republic. The verb "dollarize" is the more recent piece. It describes a country replacing its own currency with the US dollar, or using the dollar alongside it, a sense that makes the suffix's old meaning of "conform to" literal: an economy is made to conform to the dollar. A dollarized economy is one that has effectively adopted the American currency as its own.