Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

deaccession en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˌdiːækˈsɛʃən/ (UK)

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 accession English deaccession From de- + accession.

Meanings

  1. (countable, uncountable) The disposal of objects in this way, or the disposed object itself.
    • At the last board meeting, trustee Edmund Carpenter moved to clamp down on private trades. All deaccessions, he proposed, should go to other museums, or failing that, to public sale with full disclosure of records and documentation. The motion failed to get a second and there the matter died. 1974 March 31, Leah Gordon, “Trading a Museum's Treasure—a Very Hazardous Business”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
deaccessions Number=Plur lexicographic

Antonyms

accession

Coordinates

deacquisition

deaccession en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • /ˌdiːækˈsɛʃən/ (UK)

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 accession English deaccession From de- + accession.

Meanings

  1. To officially remove an object from a ledger of a museum, art gallery or library so that it may be sold or disposed.
    • Over the past few years, the museum has quietly begun deaccessioning—the genteel art-world euphemism for “getting rid of”—large numbers of its city artifacts. 2010 June, John Freeman Gill, “Ghosts of New York”, in The Atlantic:
    • Perhaps he forgets that museums, too, have basements full of stored art, and not every piece is equally adored. The temptation must be great to “deaccession” some of it, and museums often do succumb. 2000 December, Jeanne Schinto, “Obscure Objects of Lapsed Desire”, in The Atlantic:
    • The second is an unwritten rule that when a museum deaccessions a picture, the money should be used to purchase art only of the same period. 2010, Don Thompson, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark, Aurum Press Limited, →ISBN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
deaccessioned Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
deaccessioned Tense=Past lexicographic
deaccessioning Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
deaccessions Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Synonyms

deacquisition