Mongrelize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To corrupt or debase something by introducing foreign or disparate elements that diminish its original character or quality
2. To reduce the purity or integrity of something through the blending of incompatible or inferior components
3. To cause something pure to lose its original quality by combining it with different or inferior kinds

Etymology: "Mongrelize" is simply "mongrel" with the verb-forming suffix "-ize" attached, and the suffix itself has a long journey. It descends from Ancient Greek "-izein", which passed through Late Latin "-izare" and Middle French "-iser" before reaching Middle English as "-isen". By the time English adopted it as "-ize", the ending had become a general tool for turning nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into, or treat as". The base word "mongrel" is the more puzzling part of the chain. It is a Middle English word, most likely derived from "mong", meaning to mix, so a mongrel was originally something mixed or crossbred, typically a dog of uncertain parentage. Adding "-ize" produced a verb meaning to contaminate something by mixing in foreign elements, so the word carries the sense of a pure thing being spoiled by impurity.

Synonyms: crossbreed, hybridize

Antonyms: purebred