Externalize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To show or express one's thoughts or feelings outside oneself ; to represent an internal process in a physical or recognizable form
2. To communicate emotions or ideas outwardly instead of keeping them inside ; to convert mental or abstract activities into external, observable expressions
3. To release or project internal thoughts and feelings through speech or action ; to manifest an inward process in an external, concrete way

Etymology: "Externalize" is built from "external" and the suffix "-ize", and the suffix carries more of the history than the base does. "-ize" traces back through Late Latin "-izare" and ancient Greek "-izein", which turned nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat in the manner of." English took the suffix in through Middle French "-iser" and Middle English "-isen," so it arrived in English by two routes at once, which helps explain why it became so productive. "External" itself comes from Latin "externus," meaning "outward" or "from outside," a word that was built from "exter," "outside." So "externalize" literally means something like "to make outward," and the modern sense of putting an inner state into visible or physical form grows naturally from that root.

Synonyms: express, outward

Antonyms: internalize