privatization

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control.

   Coordinate term: denationalization

2. 2
   noun

   The rendering of a thought or an idea, as private in scope.

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   changing something from state to private ownership or control

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.