Ecologizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Making a product, place or practice more environmentally sound and less harmful to natural systems
2. Bringing an activity or system into line with ecological principles so it protects the natural world
3. Reshaping a process or policy so that it respects the balance and health of living environments

Etymology: "Ecologizing" is the present participle of "ecologize," a verb meaning to make something ecological or to treat a problem from an ecological viewpoint. It is built from "ecology," which the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel coined in 1866 from the Greek "oikos," meaning house or dwelling, and "logia," meaning the study of. Haeckel meant the term for the study of organisms in their habitats, the "household" of nature, rather than for the environmental movement that later borrowed it. The verb itself follows the common English pattern of adding "-ize" to a noun to make an action verb, the same route that gave us "organize" and "modernize." "Ecologize" is attested in English from the 20th century, as the environmental concern grew after the 1960s, and the "-ing" ending simply turns it into a participle, as in "the ecologizing of a city's transit system."

Synonyms: greenify, environmentalize

Antonyms: pollute, degrade