Fanaticize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cause someone to become excessively enthusiastic or obsessed with a particular idea, cause, or activity; to instill extreme zeal or fervor in an individual or group; to promote fanatical behavior or attitudes
2. To inflame or intensify passionate or extreme devotion towards a subject or belief; to convert or influence an individual or collective to embrace fanaticism; to inspire uncritical and excessive enthusiasm
3. To incite or cultivate intense and often irrational enthusiasm or commitment to a cause or doctrine; to transform a person or group into a fervent adherent; to exaggerate devotion to an extreme degree

Etymology: Fanaticize is a plain English formation: the adjective "fanatic" with the verb-forming suffix "-ize" attached. The adjective itself comes from Latin "fanaticus", meaning inspired by a god or frenzied, which was built from "fanum", a temple or sacred place. Originally, a fanatic was someone possessed or stirred to frenzy in a shrine, a sense that the English adjective carried for a long time before it came to describe zeal in politics and religion. The suffix has its own journey. It passed from ancient Greek "-izein", through Late Latin "-izare", into Old French, and then into Middle English as "-isen" before settling as the modern "-ize". The "-ize" ending gives English verbs a sense of making something into a certain condition, so "fanaticize" literally means to make someone fanatical. The verb carries the same tension as its root: it can describe deliberately stirring up zeal in others, or simply exaggerating one's own devotion to an extreme degree.

Synonyms: radicalize, extremize

Antonyms: moderate, calm