Linguistically, it makes no sense.
civilize = “to make civil”
demonize = “to make into a demon”
equalize = “to make equal.”
formalize = “to make formal”
So a womanizer should be someone or something that turns things into women.
Hilarious and accurate. Never thought of it that way!
I worked in New York State's prison system, in uniform for 25 years. One of the reasons they used to use for sending someone to prison was to "rehabilitate" them. Someone pointed out to me one day, that if you're going to rehabilitate someone, you take them, and return them back to their former condition. But that's not possible to do with criminals, because they were never good to begin with.