Balkanize
verb · first attested 1920s
The word was coined by outsiders about a peninsula they had just finished carving up.
To break a territory or an organization into small, mutually hostile units.
42.0000°N 22.0000°E · Q23522
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1920s
- Part of speech
- verb
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Balkans
- In English
Balkanize
The Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and the settlements that followed the First World War left southeastern Europe split into small rival states, and Western commentators turned the region's name into a verb around 1920. Arnold Toynbee credited the coinage to German socialists describing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. English now applies it to anything that fragments, from computer networks to school districts.