academicize

transitive verb

ac·​a·​dem·​i·​cize ˌa-kə-ˈde-mə-ˌsīz 

academicized; academicizing; academicizes

: to make (something or someone) academic

especially : to make (something) a subject of academic study

The seventeenth century turns out to be as grand in cooking as in the other arts, regulating, academicizing the rules of cookery like those of architecture, painting and grammar.

—Eugen Weber, Times Literary Supplement (London), 9 Aug. 1991

academicization

ˌa-kə-ˌde-mə-sə-ˈzā-shən 

-ˌsī-ˈzā-

noun

… the chief change in the production of American novels: their increasing academicization.

—Joseph Epstein, The Middle Of My Tether, 1983

Word History

Etymology

academic entry 1 + -ize

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

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