Personalise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To alter or change an item or experience so that it aligns closely with a person's specific tastes and preferences
2. To modify something so it suits one person's individual desires and style
3. Adjusting a product or service to reflect the unique preferences of a single user

Etymology: The verb "personalise" is a plain English formation: "personal" with the verb-forming ending "-ise" added. That ending traces back through Middle English "-isen" and Middle French "-iser" to Late Latin "-izare", which in turn borrowed a Greek pattern, "-izein", used for making verbs out of nouns and adjectives. So the suffix itself has travelled a long way before it reached English. "Personal" is the older half, borrowed from Middle French and Latin "personalis", tied to "persona", a mask or role in the theatre. The word therefore began life as a term about the individual performer, and only later came to mean what belongs to one particular person. Used in the sense of suiting someone's own tastes, the verb reflects that shift: a product or service is adapted to fit one specific individual rather than a general crowd.

Synonyms: customize, tailor, individualize, adapt, modify

Antonyms: standardize, generalize, uniform, homogenize