Informationization

I was reading something the other day about the state of the world.  It was a translation of a document written in the language of a country I’ve never lived in before (in other words, don’t try to guess what language it was first written in!).  What I love about it is the word, informationization.  I normally don’t like (can we call it verbization?) turning nouns into verbs (such as the grotesque and currently popular man up, as if the word man could be an action), but this is different, at least to my ear.  Here’s what I read: 

The international situation is currently undergoing profound and complex changes. The progress toward economic globalization and a multi-polar world is irreversible, as is the advance toward informationization of society.

It makes me want to add the suffix, -ization, to lots of words:

I have noticed the increasing lentilization of our diet, lately.
The blossomization of spring trees and flowers is lovely, is it not?
We all enjoy the increasing lettucization of my spring garden.

I know there are many common and legitimate uses of -ization, like globalization and normalization and fertilization.  Somehow, informationization is different, possibly because global, normal, and fertile are all adjectives, yet information is a noun.

But more than any of that, I like it, and that’s what word play is all about.

About literarylee

I sling words for a living. Always have, always will. Some have been interesting and fun; most not. These days, I write the fun words early in the morning before the adults are up and make me eat my Cream of Wheat.
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