To make something legal by changing the law; to officially permit something that was previously prohibited.
From 'legal' (from Latin 'legalis', meaning lawful) + '-ize' (to make). The term became common in English from the 1800s onward as governments began debating which illegal things should become legal.
Legalizing things is basically governments saying 'we changed our minds'—things like women voting, interracial marriage, and cannabis were all illegal once, then became legal when society decided the old laws were wrong.
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