Deindustrializer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual or agent that facilitates or causes the decline or removal of industrial activity in a region or economy
2. A person or entity responsible for reducing manufacturing operations and promoting the shift away from factory-based production
3. An actor involved in dismantling industrial infrastructure or encouraging the transition from industrial to post-industrial economic structures

Etymology: Industry once meant diligence rather than factories. Its Latin ancestor, "industria," described hard work and zeal, and English long kept that sense before "industry" came to name manufacturing as a whole. That later meaning is what made "industrialize" possible, and the word discussed here is built on top of it. It is a plain derivation rather than a coinage with a known author. The prefix "de-" signals reversal or removal and comes from Latin "de," meaning "down" or "away." The base "industrialize" is a verb meaning to develop manufacturing, and the suffix "-er" marks an agent, a person or thing that performs the action. Together they describe something that takes industry away from a place.

Synonyms: industrial decliner, factory closer

Antonyms: industrializer, manufacturer