Deinfluence

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Stripping away the power or sway that a person, group, or force once held over a situation or institution
2. Reducing or eliminating the control that an outside party exerts over an organization, policy, or individual
3. Diminishing the hold a particular interest or authority has on decisions, leaving it with far less sway

Etymology: "Deinfluence" is a plain formation: the prefix "de-", meaning "removing" or "reversing", attached to "influence". The prefix comes from Latin "de", meaning "from" or "down from", and in English it marks the undoing of an action, as in "deforest" or "decentralize". Put together, the verb means to take away the influence something has. "Influence" itself carries a more dramatic history. It comes from Medieval Latin "influentia", literally "a flowing in", from "influere", "to flow into". Early English astrologers used the word for the supposed fluid pouring down from the stars that shaped human character and fortune, and the sense of unseen power flowing from one thing into another stayed with the word long after astrology lost its authority. "Deinfluence" reverses that flow, so the word describes draining away a force that had been pouring in.