Inertizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Makes a substance or material chemically inactive or unreactive
2. Causes a compound or environment to lose its ability to react or engage in chemical change
3. Transforms a reactive element or mixture into a stable, inert state

Etymology: Latin "iners" meant "unskilled" or "idle." It was built from "in-" ("not") and "ars" ("skill," the same root as "art"). Its sense of lacking skill shifted toward sluggishness and inactivity, and that later sense is what English "inert" carries. The word gained its chemical meaning of "not readily reacting" only when scientists needed a name for substances that did not combine with others. "Inertize" adds the suffix "-ize," which descends from Greek "-izein," a verb-forming ending that passed into Latin as "-izare" and into English through French. Attached to an adjective, it means "make or cause to be" that adjective. So "inertize" means "make inert," usually by adding a substance or treatment that stops a material from reacting, as in making a container's atmosphere non-reactive.

Synonyms: stabilizes, neutralizes, deactivates, passivates

Antonyms: activates, energizes, excites