Word of the Day

: March 23, 2008

infantilize

verb IN-fun-tye-lyze

What It Means

1 : to cause to be or remain like an infant or young child

2 : to treat like an infant or young child

infantilize in Context

Stanley still lives with his parents, who are inclined to infantilize him to such a degree that he'll probably never make it on his own.

Did You Know?

"Infantilize" is just a baby, relatively speaking, in the English language family. It first saw the light of day in the early 1940s, when social scientists started using it to discuss ways that humans or human activity can prolong or encourage dependency in other humans by treating them as helpless. The adjective "infantile," which gave birth to "infantilize," is far more mature, however -- it's over 300 years old. "Infantile" sometimes literally means "relating to infants" -- that is, to children in the first year of life -- but it also has a broader meaning; if I chide someone for his or her infantile behavior I simply mean that the person is acting immature or childish.