privatization

Meanings

1. The transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control.
2. The rendering of a thought or an idea, as private in scope.

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.