Treated unfairly or cruelly; singled out to be harmed or taken advantage of.
From 'victim' (Latin 'victima,' originally meaning sacrificial animal), plus the suffix '-ize' meaning to make or treat as. The meaning shifted from religious sacrifice to broader unfair treatment.
Interestingly, 'victim' once meant the animal being sacrificed to gods—so victimizing someone literally meant treating them as if they were being sacrificed, which explains why the word carries such heavy emotional weight today.
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