Denuclearizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Eliminates nuclear weapons from a territory or state ; strips a nation of its reliance on nuclear power plants
2. Rids an area of atomic arms ; phases out the use of nuclear energy within a country
3. Clears a region of nuclear armament ; takes a nation away from reliance on nuclear reactors and their energy

Etymology: The verb "denuclearizes" is simply the third-person singular present form of "denuclearize", which means to strip a place, country or region of nuclear weapons. Its history is a stack of two prefixes and a suffix added to a root that dates back to Latin. The core is "nuclear", borrowed from the New Latin "nucleus", meaning kernel or core, which in the nineteenth century gained the specialised sense of an atom's central part. Once nuclear weapons and power existed, English speakers needed a verb for taking them away, and "nuclearize" came first, meaning to equip with nuclear weapons or power. The "-ize" ending comes from Ancient Greek "-izein", passed through Late Latin "-izare" and Old French "-iser" into Middle English, where it became the common way to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs. The prefix "de-" comes from Latin, where it meant "down" or "away" and often reverses an action. Adding it to "nuclearize" produced a verb meaning the reverse of arming a country with nuclear weapons.

Synonyms: disarm

Antonyms: nuclearize, rearm