Other terms have been used - aging, curing, etc. The term stabilizing goes back a long way. In 1919 Searle used it in the chapter on the preparation of colloidal sols in his text The Use Of Colloids In Health And Disease. He wrote on page 55:
"The stabilizing or protecting of a colloidal sol depends on its being in a state of equilibrium between the forces tending to cause these small particles to coalesce (surface tension) and those tending to cause dispersion of the colloid throughout the medium. Stability appears to be due, in most cases, to a union of the particles to be stabilized with those of the protective colloid or with ions which have the stabilizing action. Zsigmondy maintains that stability is wholly due to the equilibrium between the adsorption and dissociation of ions by colloidal particles." Matthew
