Deactivators

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Devices or substances that render something inert or non-functional
2. tools designed to disable a mechanism, function, or process
3. agents that neutralize or reverse the activity of a system or chemical reaction

Etymology: The verb "deactivate" is formed from "de-", a prefix meaning "reverse or undo", attached to "activate". "Activate" in turn comes from "active", which English borrowed through Old French from Latin "activus", itself built on "agere", "to do, drive, act". So a deactivator is, at root, something that undoes the driving force of a thing. The ending "-or" is the familiar agent suffix, borrowed in Middle English from Old French "-eor" and ultimately from Latin "-tor", which marked a person or thing that performs an action. A deactivator is therefore whatever performs the act of undoing activity. The "de-" prefix is itself Latin in origin, from "de", meaning "down, away from, reversing", and it is the same prefix found in words such as "decode" and "deflate". Its job in "deactivate" is to turn the action of "activate" back on itself, which is why the plural "deactivators" names the many things that switch off, neutralise or disable something.

Synonyms: disablers, inactivators, neutralizers, shutoff agents, turn-off devices

Antonyms: activators, enablers, stimulators, initiators, starters