COMMODIFICATION

noun (Business World) The process of turning something into a commodity or viewing it in commercial terms when it is not by nature commercial; commercialization. Etymology: Formed by adding the process suffix -ification to the first two syllables of commodity. History and Usage: Coined in the seventies, commodification has become a fashionable word to describe the eighties' increasingly commercial approach to the Arts and to services (such as health care) which would not previously have been regarded as marketable. In financial sources, the word has also been used to refer to the tendency in the late eighties for money to be traded as though it were a commodity. [Artists] have made conscious attempts over the last decade to combat the relentless commodification of their products. Lucy Lippard Overlay (1983), p. 6