privatization
nounUK /ˌpɹaɪvɪtaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ · US /ˌpɹaɪvətaɪˈzeɪʃən/
Etymology Calque of German Privatisierung (with English -ation), derived from Latin prīvātus (“apart from the state; private”), with reference to post-First World War German economic principles. Popularized by Sidney Merlin in 1943, who was aware of the term reprivatization (used in similar contexts), already attested at the time.
1
British, English, Oxford, US The transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control.
- Coordinate term: denationalization
- The party, moreover, facilitates the accumulation of private fortunes and industrial empires by its foremost members and collaborators through ‘privatization’ and other measures, thereby intensifying centralization of economic affairs and government in an increasingly narrow group that may for all practical purposes be termed the national socialist elite.1943, Sidney Merlin, “Trends in German Economic Control Since 1933”, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, page 207:
- Questioning the privilege of biology went hand in hand with a challenge to the privatization of the family and the notion that parents own children and may therefore treat them however they choose.1988 February 14, Laurie Sherman, “All In A Day's Work”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 30, page 7:
- Antonyms
- nationalization
- Derived terms
- antiprivatization, deprivatization, self-privatization
- Related terms
- privatize