Nuclearized

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Provided with nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants ; struck by or contaminated through nuclear weapons or radioactive fallout
2. Armed with atomic arms or powered by nuclear reactors ; hit by a nuclear strike or exposed to radioactive material from one
3. Equipped with nuclear armaments or energy systems ; targeted by a nuclear attack or polluted by radiation from nuclear fallout

Etymology: The word is simply "nuclear" with the suffix "-ize" attached, so its story is mostly about that suffix. "-Ize" traces back through Late Latin "-izare" and Ancient Greek "-izein", and it passed into English by way of Middle French and Middle English, where it was used to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat with" something. "Nuclear" came into English in the 19th century from New Latin "nucleus," a Latin word for a kernel, and gained its modern physics sense only in the 20th century, after the discovery of the atomic nucleus. Put together, "nuclearize" means "to equip with nuclear weapons" or "to make nuclear," a meaning that followed directly from the atomic age. The past tense and past participle, "nuclearized," are the forms used when the action is complete, as in a country that has already acquired such arms.

Antonyms: denuclearize