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balkanise

 - 2 dictionary results

Bal⋅kan⋅ize

  [bawl-kuh-nahyz]
Use balkanise in a Sentence
–verb (used with object), -ized, -iz⋅ing.
1. to divide (a country, territory, etc.) into small, quarrelsome, ineffectual states.
2. (often lowercase) to divide (groups, areas, etc.) into contending and usually ineffectual factions: a movement to balkanize minority voters.
Also, especially British, Bal⋅kan⋅ise.

Origin:
1915–20; Balkan + -ize

Related forms:
Bal⋅kan⋅i⋅za⋅tion, noun
Bal⋅kan⋅ism, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

Balkanize 
1920, in reference to the Baltic states; said to have been coined by Eng. editor James Louis Garvin (1868-1947), but Toynbee credited it to "German Socialists." Either way, the reference is to the political situation in the Balkans c.1878-1913, when the European section of the Ottoman Empire split up into small, warring nations.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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