Deracinate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪˈɹæsɪnaɪt/

Origin

French déraciner, from racine ("root"), from Latin radix, radicis ("root").

Full definition of deracinate

Verb

1. To pull up by the roots; to uproot; to extirpate.
• 1602, Shakespeare, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate,The unity and married calm of statesQuite from their fixture!
• 1910, G.K. Chesterton, ,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.
2. To force (people) from their homeland to a new or foreign location.
3. (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.