When I use a word …

Medicalization

BMJ 2002; 324 doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7342.904 (Published 13 April 2002)
Cite this as: BMJ 2002;324:904

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  1. Jeff Aronson, clinical pharmacologist
  1. Oxford

    Take any noun or adjective. Add an -ize to make a verb (see BMJ 2001;323:1173). Now change the -ize to -ization. That makes another noun.

    Some dislike this neologistic method, because they think that it is nasty, modern, and American to boot. They are wrong. The habit may well be nasty, but it has a long pedigree and the earliest examples are English. Of the 1140 or so -izations listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest, exorcization and canonization, go back to the 14th century; other early examples include organization and solemnization (15C), cauterization and cicatrization (16C), and authorization and embolization (17C). And authors cited in the earliest examples include Coleridge, De Quincy, Donne, John Evelyn, Joseph …

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