Other forms: immortalized, immortalizing, immortalizes
To immortalize is to make somebody remembered for ever. Immortalized in paint, immortalized by the poem, immortalize the moment.
It is nearly always passive and always about the record rather than the person, since immortalizing somebody preserves a version of them. Britain spells it immortalise.
1verbimmortalizeTo make somebody remembered for ever.
“The poet immortalized his beloved in a famous sonnet.”
immortalize is a preserving.
Also accepted in games: immortalise
Proto-Indo-European
*mer-
peo
*anauša- — immortal, without death
Ancient Greek
ἀθάνατος
Latin
immortālis
English
immortal
English, today
immortalize
Built from
From immortal + -ize. immortal comes from Latin immortālis, from prefix im- (“not”) (from in-) + mortālis (“mortal”) (from mors (“death”), combining form mort- + adjectival suffix -alis), equivalent to im- + mortal. Displaced native undeadly, from Old English undēadlīċ. The term referring to the Persian soldiers was a Ancient Greek ἀθάνατος. One suggestion claimed that "Immortals" were named by the ancient Greeks because wounded soldiers were quickly replaced, while another claimed that it was because Greek informants confused peo anauša- (“immortal, without death”) with peo anūšiya- (“companion, royal bodyguard”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA