Deanonymise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Reveal the true identity of a person who had previously been kept unnamed or hidden from the public
2. Expose the real name behind an anonymous author, donor, victim or source so their identity becomes known
3. Make publicly known the identity of someone who was previously concealed behind a pseudonym or unnamed status

Etymology: "Deanonymise" is formed from the prefix "de-", meaning to reverse or undo, added to "anonymise", which itself comes from "anonymous". "Anonymous" traces back through Latin "anonymus" to the Greek "anōnumos", meaning "without a name", built from "a-" (not) and "onoma" (name). Adding "de-" to "anonymise" produces a verb for stripping away that namelessness, so the sense is the reverse of making something anonymous. The word belongs to the modern era of digital privacy, where data sets, online accounts and medical or survey records are routinely stripped of names. Reversing that process is the task of deanonymisation, and the verb describes it in a single word.

Synonyms: deanonymize, unmask

Antonyms: anonymise, anonymize