naturalize

• naturalise

From Middle French naturaliser; surface analysis, natural +‎ -ize.[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈnæt͡ʃəɹəˌlaɪz/, /ˈnæt͡ʃɹəˌlaɪz/

naturalize (third-person singular simple present naturalizes, present participle naturalizing, simple past and past participle naturalized)

1. To grant citizenship to someone not born a citizen.
2. To acclimatize an animal or plant.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 8, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, OCLC 223202227:

     Its wearer suggested that pears and peaches might yet be naturalized in the New England climate.

3. To make natural

   Custom naturalizes labour or study.

4. To limit explanations of a phenomenon to naturalistic ones and exclude supernatural ones.
5. (linguistics) To make (a word) a natural part of the language, using the native homologue of each phoneme (and often for each morpheme) of the imported word (e.g., native inflections).

   In English, foreign words are typically written in italics until they are naturalized.

   English speakers have naturalized the French word "café".

   English orthography often (but not invariably) drops the diacritics from words that it has naturalized from other languages.

   See also: loanword, calque, unadapted borrowing

6. To study nature.
   • 1854, Somerton, The heiress of Somerton, page 226:

     Well, any way, Doctor, we will make an appointment for a whole day here next spring ; we will botanize, herbarize and naturalize to our hearts' content, from morn till night."

• denaturalize, exile (verb), expatriate (verb), other (verb), supernaturalize

• naturalized (adj), naturalization