Nuclearises

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Supplies a country or force with nuclear weapons ; switches an energy system over to power generated by atomic fission
2. Arms a state or military with atomic warheads ; converts an industry or nation so that it runs on energy from nuclear reactors
3. Provides a military with nuclear arms ;转 changes a power supply so that it depends on reactor-generated atomic energy

Etymology: "Nuclearises" is the third-person singular form of "nuclearise", which means to equip with nuclear weapons or to convert something to nuclear power. The verb is built from "nuclear" and the suffix "-ise", and the suffix carries a long ancestry of its own. It begins in Ancient Greek as a verb ending that formed verbs from nouns and adjectives, passed into Late Latin as "-izare", then into Middle French as "-iser", and reached English in the Middle English period as "-isen". The English suffix therefore arrived by a winding route, passing through three languages before it was attached to a word from the modern era. Its main job in English has always been to turn a noun or adjective into a verb, as in "modernise" or "civilise". "Nuclear" itself, from Latin "nucleus" meaning kernel, gave rise to "nuclearise" by the same pattern, so the new verb is a fresh combination of an old suffix with a word that only came into use in the scientific sense in the twentieth century.

Synonyms: nuclearize, arm

Antonyms: denuclearize, demilitarize