Siliconize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To coat or treat a surface with a silicone-based substance to repel water or reduce friction; to impregnate or cover with silicone for protection or lubrication; to apply a silicone layer to enhance durability or resistance
2. To cover an object or surface with silicone material to make it water-resistant or non-stick; to treat with a silicone compound to provide a protective or slippery coating; to impregnate a surface with silicone to improve its functional properties
3. To apply a silicone coating to a surface to provide water repellency or reduce adhesion; to saturate or cover with silicone to protect or lubricate; to use silicone treatment to improve surface qualities such as durability or smoothness

Etymology: Silicone itself is a 20th-century coinage, and "siliconize" is simply that word with the verbal suffix "-ize" attached. The suffix has a long pedigree: it passed from ancient Greek "-izein" through Late Latin "-izare" and Middle French "-iser" into Middle English as "-isen", and eventually settled into the modern "-ize" form. Its job is to turn a noun into a verb meaning "to treat with, make into, or cover with" the thing named. The noun underneath is the surprise. Silicone was named in the early 1900s by the chemist Frederic Stanley Kipping, who thought the compounds were analogues of ketones, which contain carbon-oxygen double bonds, and so he borrowed the "-one" ending from ketone and attached it to "silicon". The chemistry turned out to be different: silicones are chains of silicon and oxygen, not carbon-oxygen ketones, so the name was a misleading one, though it stuck.

Synonyms: siliconise, coat with silicone

Antonyms: desiliconize