Other writers on language have explored the word normalize and its history: Hua Hsu in The New Yorker, Nancy Friedman on her blog Fritinancy, Mark Peters in the Boston Globe, the lexicographers of Merriam-Webster on their blog… But the question no one has addressed so far is: Why can’t we use standardize or regularize in place of normalize? We could conceivably use make ordinary – but why doesn’t ordinary have a verb form, anyway?
So here’s my answer, in my latest article for The Week:
What does normalize even mean?
Sesquiotica 