Merriam-Webster:
intransitive verb
1
: to change into bone //The cartilages
ossified with age.
transitive verb
1
: to change (a material, such as
cartilage) into bone//
ossified tendons of muscle.
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The skeletons of mammals originate as soft
cartilage that gradually transforms into hard
bone (in humans, the process begins in the womb and continues until late adolescence). English speakers have referred to this bone-building process as
ossification since the late 17th century, and the verb
ossify appeared at roughly the same time. English speakers had begun to use both
ossification and
ossify for more figurative types of hardening (such as that of the heart, mind, or soul) by the 19th century. Both words descend from the Latin root
os, meaning "bone."
Os is also an English word that appears in scientific contexts as a synonym of
bone, and the Latin term is an ancestor of the word
osseous, which means "consisting of or resembling bone."
