devitalize

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *de

Proto-Indo-European *-h₁

Proto-Indo-European *déh₁

Proto-Italic *dē

Latin dē

Latin dē-der.

English de-

English vital

Proto-Indo-European *-id-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti

Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor.

Late Latin -izōder.

Middle French -iserbor.

Middle English -isen

English -ize

English vitalize

English devitalize

From de- + vitalize.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

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Verb

devitalize (third-person singular simple present devitalizes, present participle devitalizing, simple past and past participle devitalized)

1. (literal, figurative, transitive) To deprive of vitality; to make lifeless; to weaken.

   Antonyms: animate, reanimate, rejuvenate, revitalize, vitalize

   Coordinate terms: dispirit, kill

   Near-synonym: deanimate

   Noncrushing surgical clamps avoid devitalizing the cells of arterial walls.

   Economic stress has devitalized some shopping malls in the web era.

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 126:

     Not so long ago a Scotsman is reported to have exhumed the body of his daughter and burnt her heart, as he thought she was devitalising her remaining brother and sister and making them ill.

Related terms

• devitalization

Translations

1. To deprive of vitality

• German: abtöten (de)