the.com/sterilization

means The process of completely eliminating or destroying all microorganisms, spores, and other living contaminants from an object, surface, or substance.

from From Latin 'sterilis,' meaning barren or unable to produce — originally used of unfruitful soil or childless unions. The word traveled from fields to flesh to flasks: by the 19th century, as germ theory took hold, 'sterile' came to mean free of microbial life, and 'sterilization' emerged as the deliberate act of making something that barren — not by neglect, but by boiling, heat, or chemicals. The leap from 'infertile ground' to 'microbe-free scalpel' is really just one idea wearing different coats: nothing alive left to grow.