Substantivising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Converting another part of speech, such as an adjective or verb, into a noun by grammatical means
2. Making a word function as a noun by changing its form or using it in a noun position in a sentence
3. Forming a noun from a word that was originally a different part of speech, for example turning an adjective into a naming word

Etymology: "Substantivising" is the present participle of a verb meaning to turn a word, phrase or other element into a noun, as when "the good" becomes a noun in "the good of the people". The verb is built from "substantive", which in grammar has long meant a noun (or a word functioning as one), and the English suffix "-ise", which turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning "to make or treat as". So the whole word means, quite literally, making something a substantive. The base word is the more interesting half. "Substantive" comes from Latin "substantivus", which meant "having independent existence" and is related to "substantia", the thing that stands beneath or underlies something else. Grammarians later used the adjective to describe words that stand on their own as nouns, and it was the noun use of "substantive" that prompted the verb built on it. The result is a technical term whose literal sense, "giving a thing its own standing", fits its grammatical job well.

Synonyms: nominalizing, nominalising