Industrializing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The shift towards an economy dominated by factories and mass production involves the enhancement of manufacturing processes and technologies for greater efficiency
2. This process entails the growth of industries that replace agrarian economies with a focus on large-scale production and technological advancement
3. The transition to an economy where manufacturing leads encompasses advancements in production methods and the establishment of industries over traditional farming

Etymology: The verb "industrialize" was borrowed from French "industrialiser", which in turn was built from French "industriel" (industrial) and the verb-forming suffix "-iser", itself traced through Late Latin "-izare" back to Greek "-izein". The "industrial" element comes from the French noun "industrie", ultimately from Latin "industria", meaning diligence or skill. That Latin noun is linked to "industrius", "diligent", a word whose ancestry runs back to a prefix "in-" and a root meaning to build or pile up. So the idea of industry began as plain human effort and only gradually narrowed to the making of goods. The "-ing" ending is the ordinary English suffix that turns the verb into a participle or gerund, so the word simply describes the act of making a society or economy run on factories. Its meaning follows the rise of large-scale manufacturing: a word for diligent work became, through the machines and mills of the modern age, a word for transforming whole nations.

Synonyms: modernizing, mechanizing

Antonyms: deindustrializing