Dearabicising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of removing Arabic linguistic elements or characteristics from a text, language, or culture; eliminating Arabic influence to restore or impose a different language or identity; adapting or transforming content to reduce Arabic features
2. The act of extracting or eradicating Arabic language traces or cultural aspects from speech, writing, or social practices; reversing Arabization by replacing Arabic elements with alternatives; modifying expressions or customs to exclude Arabic components
3. The procedure of subtracting Arabic-derived vocabulary, script, or traditions from a communication or context; undoing Arab cultural or linguistic integration; converting or sanitizing content to diminish Arabic presence or markers

Etymology: The "de-" in this verb comes from Latin, where it meant "down from" or "away," and in English it now signals reversal or removal, as in "decolonise" or "defrost." Attached to "Arabicise," it means undoing the adoption of Arabic features. "Arabicise" is itself built on "Arabic," which reached English through Latin "arabicus" and Greek "Arabikos," from the Arabic adjective "ʿarabī," which belongs to the name of the Arabian peninsula's people and language. The "-ing" ending marks it as a verb form that can act as a noun, which suits the policy or process sense in the definition. Its meaning depends entirely on the direction of the reversal: a word can be "Arabicised" by borrowing, and "dearabicising" is the deliberate effort to strip those borrowings back out.

Synonyms: deromanizing, dearabizing, latenizing, latinizing, dearabicizing

Antonyms: arabicizing, arabizing, islamizing, arabifying