Dictionary

depersonalize en · VERB

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- Middle English personal English personal 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 personalize English depersonalize From de- + personalize.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To remove a sense of personal identity or individual character from something; to anonymize.
   • A new language is infecting the culture of American medicine. It is the language of the marketplace, of the tradesman, and of the cost accountant. It is a language that depersonalizes both patients and physicians and describes medical care as just another commodity. 1982 April 8, Rashi Fein, “What Is Wrong with the Language of Medicine?”, in New England Journal of Medicine, volume 306, number 14, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 863–864:
   • In some places priests who appear always in Roman collar are suspected of aspiring to higher offices. It is taken so because usually the bishops appear in this official dress. The wearing of Roman collar can potentially depersonalize someone. 2011, Jordan Nyenyembe, African Catholic Priests: Confronting an Identity Problem, page 74:
   • These "Eternal Ones of the Dream" are not to be confused with the personally modified symbolic figures that appear in nightmare and madness to the still tormented individual. Dream is the personalized myth, myth the depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamics of the psyche. 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 19:
2. (transitive) To present (something) as an impersonal object.
   • Quantification (or statisticalization) is a set of scientific practices that transforms text statements into numerical ones, depersonalizing and decontextualizing them[…] 2008, Susan Greenhalgh, Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China, page 109:
3. (intransitive) To suffer an episode of depersonalization.
   • He's depersonalizing right now, so he's considering checking himself into the hospital.

Forms

Deriveds

depersonalizer

Relateds

depersonalization · depersonalization disorder

Translations (7)

it spersonalizzare (remove a sense of personal identity from something) · pt despersonalizar (remove a sense of personal identity from something) · de depersonalisieren (remove a sense of personal identity from something) · de entpersönlichen (remove a sense of personal identity from something) · fr dépersonnaliser (remove a sense of personal identity from something) · el αποπροσωποποιώ (remove a sense of personal identity from something) · ca despersonalitzar (remove a sense of personal identity from something)