Privatization

How to spell privatization

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce privatization

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does privatization mean?

1. nounThe transfer of a business, industry, or service from government ownership into private ownership.

Privatization in a sentence

• The privatization of the railway sparked years of public debate.

• Critics argued that privatization of the water supply raised household bills.

Where does privatization come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin privatus, meaning 'set apart' or 'belonging to oneself', which was the past participle of privare, 'to deprive or release from public duty'. From privatus English took 'private' in the late 1300s by way of Old French, carrying the idea of something kept out of public hands. The verb 'privatize' was assembled much later using the Greek-derived suffix -ize, and the noun 'privatization' followed to name the act of transferring an industry or asset from state ownership into private hands. It became a heavily used political and economic term in the twentieth century, especially during the wave of state sell-offs in the 1980s. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: the schwa vowels in 'priv-uh-tuh' give no clue whether to write a or e, and the -ize versus -ise ending splits along dialect lines.

How the word is built

• privat- (from Latin privatus: set apart, belonging to oneself)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)
• -ation (noun of action)

British and American spelling

Privatization is the American spelling. British English spells it privatisation.