Ecologized

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Made environmentally sound or restored to a healthy relationship with the natural world, as when a process or place is reshaped to protect living systems
2. Transformed so that it accords with ecological principles and the health of surrounding natural systems
3. Brought into harmony with the natural environment by reducing harm and restoring balance among living things and their habitats

Etymology: "Ecologized" is the past tense and past participle of "ecologize," a verb meaning to make something ecological or environmentally conscious. The verb is built from "ecology," which entered English in the 1870s from German "Ökologie," coined by the zoologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866. Haeckel built it from Greek "oikos," meaning house or dwelling, and "-logia," the study of, so ecology literally meant the study of the household of nature: the relations between organisms and their surroundings. "Ecologize" followed in the 20th century, when environmental concern became a mainstream political and commercial topic. Adding "-ize," a suffix that turns nouns and adjectives into verbs of making or becoming, let writers describe the process of bringing a product, policy, or place into line with ecological principles. The word is therefore a recent coinage, and its history is almost entirely traceable to Haeckel's original term.