Dictionary

depersonate en · VERB

Etymology

From de- + person + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Meanings

1. To depersonalize; to remove the status of a person.
   • The fantasy of robotic masses expresses a complex desire, to embody and depersonate at the same time. 2014, Despina Kakoudaki, Anatomy of a Robot:
   • Is there not a tendency to speak of the operation of the Holy Spirit as that of an influence, rather than an agency — to depersonate or impersonate Him? 1847, The Biblical review, and Congregational magazine:
   • In "St. Simeon Stylites" (1833), camparably, the monologist's obsession with gaining a sanctified fame leads him to depersonate himself into the very stone pillar on which he sits, the epithet by which he has his identity: he names himself, "I, Simeon of the pillar, by surname / Stylites, among men; I, Simeon, / The watcher on the column till the end" (lines 158-60). 1993, Herbert F. Tucker, Critical essays on Alfred Lord Tennyson, page 101:

Forms