Why “civilize” is a great word
CIVILIZE — [Verb] To bring a place or people to a stage of social, cultural, and moral development considered to be more advanced. Borrowed from French civiliser, corresponding to civil (from Latin civilis, 'relating to a citizen') + -ize (verb-forming suffix). First attested in English 1595–1605. Unlike "educate," which focuses on imparting knowledge, or "tame," which subdues wildness in nature, "civilize" implies a comprehensive, value-laden transformation of human society toward a perceived ideal. It is the scent of soap and starch pressed into rough-spun cloth, the imposition of a uniform grammar upon a riot of local dialects, and the quiet, systematic replacement of ancestral gods with a single, orderly clock in the town square—a process that polishes away roughness at the cost of a certain native vitality, leaving in its wake the quiet question of what was gained and what was irrevocably lost.