Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
concretize (v.)
although it has been in print at least since 1884, had its most recent vogue beginning in the 1940s, and it appears to have been caught up in the furor over maximize and finalize and other bureaucratic coinages using the -ize suffix. It means “to make concrete” or “to turn into substance what before was nebulous and insubstantial.” In those senses it’s useful and Standard. See -ISE.
