Nuclearize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To arm a country, military, or region with nuclear weapons ; to devastate a target or area by attacking it with nuclear weapons ; to switch an energy system or industry over to nuclear power
2. To supply a nation or force with atomic weapons ; to wipe out a place through the use of nuclear bombs ; to transform a power sector so that it runs on nuclear energy
3. Giving a state or army a stockpile of nuclear arms ; reducing a region to ruin with atomic bombardment ; converting an energy supply to rely on nuclear reactors

Etymology: "Nuclearize" is a plain formation: the adjective "nuclear" with the verb-forming suffix "-ize" attached. The suffix itself has a long pedigree, arriving in English through a chain of borrowings. It began in ancient Greek as "-izein", a verb ending that turned nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat in the manner of". Late Latin took it up as "-izare", French adopted it as "-iser", and English absorbed it in the Middle Ages as "-isen", later becoming the "-ize" spelling familiar today. The adjective "nuclear" carries a much newer story. It descends from "nucleus", Latin for "kernel" or "core", and entered scientific use in the nineteenth century, when physicists and biologists needed terms for a central core. The verb was built on that base once the atomic nucleus became a household concept after 1945, when the bomb made atomic power a political reality. Its three senses reflect that history: arming a state, devastating a region with bombardment, and converting an energy supply to reactors.