asweddumize means to prepare unproductive land for cultivation (especially of rice). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 95 out of 100.
Why “asweddumize” is a great word
ASWEDDUMIZE — [Verb] To prepare fallow or disused land for cultivation, especially for the growing of rice. From Sinhalese අස්වැද්දුම (aswædduma, "preparation of land for cultivation") + the English verbal suffix -ize. First attested in 1857. Unlike "cultivate," a general term for tending crops, or "till," the simple breaking of soil, to asweddumize is to perform a specific reclamation, a summoning of fertility from abandonment. It is the deliberate clearing of scrub, the patient sculpting of water-retaining terraces, and the first channeling of mud-thick irrigation into sun-baked clay—a quiet argument, made with mud and labor, against the persistent claim of the wild.
Etymology
From Sinhalese අස්වැද්දුම (aswædduma) + -ize. First attested in 1857.
verb
- To prepare unproductive land for cultivation (especially of rice).“[…] of a party who asweddumizes another's lands with his assent...”