Denuclearises

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Gets rid of nuclear weapons from a nation or area ; takes nuclear power out of an area or the energy supply
2. Clears nuclear arms from a territory ; strips nuclear energy and its installations away from a region
3. Eliminates atomic weapons from a country or zone ; removes nuclear power facilities from a place or system

Etymology: "Denuclearises" is the third-person singular form of "denuclearise", so the verb's story is really the story of its two parts. The prefix "de-" comes from Latin "dē", meaning "down from" or "away from", and it is the same element that gives English words like "decline" and "deport". The base is "nuclear", which in turn is built from the Latin "nucleus", a diminutive of "nux", meaning "nut" or "kernel". The idea was a small central core, and it was later taken up for the atomic nucleus. The verb itself was formed in English by attaching "de-" to "nuclearise". That word carries the ending "-ise", which traces back through Middle French "-iser" and Late Latin "-izare" to Ancient Greek "-izein", a suffix used for making verbs. So the whole word is a modern coinage: a Latin prefix, a Latin-derived adjective, and a Greek-rooted suffix, put together to name the act of stripping a country or region of its nuclear arms.

Synonyms: disarm, demilitarizes

Antonyms: rearms, nuclearizes