Alienate

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/

Definitions

1. To induce feelings of isolation in a person, to make them feel unwelcome among others, and to transfer possession or authority over something to a different party
2. To cause someone to feel isolated or excluded from a group or society ; to convey property or rights to another person or entity
3. To make a person feel disconnected or unwelcome within their social environment ; to legally give up ownership of land, property, or rights to someone else

Etymology: The verb "alienate" carries an older sense that has nearly vanished: in Middle English, an "alienat" was someone deranged or out of their wits. That madness meaning came first, drawn from the Latin "aliēnātus," the past participle of "aliēnō," meaning "to estrange." Estrangement, in other words, was the root idea, and the mind was imagined as something that could be pulled away from its proper self. The Latin base is "aliēnus," meaning "belonging to another" or "foreign," which also gave English "alien." So "alienate" is, on the surface, "alien" with the Latin suffix "-ate" added, and the sense of "making something other" runs through both its social and legal meanings. Legally, to alienate property is to transfer it to another owner, which keeps that original idea of handing something over to a stranger. In French, the related "aliéner" likewise once meant a crazed or mad person, showing that the madness sense was shared across the two languages. The modern social sense, of pushing someone out of a group, is a later extension of this older vocabulary of separation.

Synonyms: estrange, isolated, separate, detach, divorce

Antonyms: unite, reconcile, connect, bond, affiliate