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legitimize

[li-jit-uh-mahyz]

Origin

verb (used with object), le·git·i·mized, le·git·i·miz·ing.

to make legitimate.

Also, especially British, le·git·i·mise.

Origin:
1840–50; < Latin lēgitim(us) (see legitim) + -ize

Related forms

le·git·i·mi·za·tion, noun

Can be confused: legitimate, legitimize.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To legitimize

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Legitimize is one of our favorite verbs.

So is lollygag. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to spend time idly; loaf.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

legitimize, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise (lɪˈdʒɪtɪˌmaɪz, lɪˈdʒɪtɪməˌtaɪz)

—vb
	(tr) to make legitimate; legalize

legitimise, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—vb

legitimatize, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—vb

legitimatise, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—vb

legitimi'zation, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—n

legitimi'sation, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—n

legitimati'zation, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—n

legitimati'sation, legitimise, legitimatize or legitimatise

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

legitimize

1848, from L. legitimus (see legitimate). Earlier was legitimatize (1791).

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Matching Quote

"I don't really know how most of my ventures in this work were ever financed. I am of no economical turn of mind. I do things first, and somehow or another they get paid for. If I had waited to finance my various battles for birth control, I do not suppose they ever would have become realities. I suppose here is the real difference between the idealist—or the "fanatic, as we are called—and the ordinary "normal" human being."

-Margaret Sanger

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