Decriminalify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To remove criminal penalties associated with an act or behavior while it may still be regulated or discouraged
2. To stop treating a particular offense as a criminal violation and instead consider it a civil matter or subject to lesser sanctions
3. To rescind laws that classify certain activities as crimes, thereby reducing legal consequences but not necessarily legalizing or endorsing them

Etymology: "Decriminalify" is a straightforward formation: the prefix "de-" (from Latin "de", meaning "down from" or "reverse"), the stem "crimin-" from Latin "crimen" (accusation, offense), and the suffix "-ify" from Latin "-ificare", meaning "to make." Put together, it means to make something no longer a crime. The stem "crimen" came into English earlier as "crime," and "criminal" entered in the 1400s, but "decriminalize" itself is a much later coinage. The word is first attested in the 1930s, when it was used in discussions of changing legal treatment of offenses, and it became common in the mid-twentieth century. The "-ize" spelling is the usual form in British and American English, while "-ify" is an older variant that appears in some dictionaries and in the wording here.

Synonyms: legalize, depenalize, decriminalize

Antonyms: criminalize, penalize, prosecute