deracinate

English

WOTD – 20 December 2013

Etymology

Calque of French déraciner, from racine (“root”), from Latin radix, radicis (“root”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /dɪˈɹæsɪnaɪt/
Audio (US) (file)

Verb

deracinate (third-person singular simple present deracinates, present participle deracinating, simple past and past participle deracinated)

To pull up by the roots; to uproot; to extirpate.
- 1602, Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
  Divert and crack, rend and deracinate,
  The unity and married calm of states
  Quite from their fixture!
- 1910, G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World, chapter 1.7
  The State has no tool delicate enough to deracinate the rooted habits and tangled affections of the family; the two sexes, whether happy or unhappy, are glued together too tightly for us to get the blade of a legal penknife in between them.
To force (people) from their homeland to a new or foreign location.
(transitive, intransitive) To liberate or be liberated from a culture or its norms.
- 1986 Robert McCrum, William Cran, & Robert MacNeil, The Story of English, Viking Penguin Inc., p328:
  Observing the highest echelons of Indian society, she notes the way in which some Indians become completely — almost absurdly — anglicized or deracinated.

Translations

pull up by the roots; to uproot; to extirpate

Dutch: ontwortelen (nl), deracineren
French: déraciner (fr)
German: entwurzeln (de)

Greek: ξεριζώνω (el) (xerizóno)
Italian: sradicare (it), estirpare (it)
Swedish: rycka upp med rötterna

force (people) from their homeland to a new or foreign location

Dutch: onthemen
French: déraciner (fr)
German: entwurzeln (de)

Greek: ξεριζώνω (el) (xerizóno)
Italian: sradicare (it)

liberate or be liberated from a culture or its norms

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: (1, 2) ^{(please verify)} déraciner (fr)
German: (1, 2) ^{(please verify)} entwurzeln (de)

Punjabi: ^{(please verify)} ਜੜੋਂ ਪੁੱਟਣਾ (jaṛõ puṭṇā)