Depoliticized

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. To render a matter free from political implications or involvement
2. Transformed to exclude political concerns or influence
3. Changed to remove political context or affiliations

Etymology: The verb "depoliticize" is built on "politicize," which itself grew out of the adjective "political." The chain runs back through Latin "politicus" and Greek "politikos," meaning "of citizens" or "of the city-state," from "polis." English "politicize" came in later, with the "-ize" ending ultimately borrowed through Late Latin "-izare" and Ancient Greek "-izein," a suffix used to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make into" or "to treat in a certain way." The prefix "de-" is the Latin "de," which in verbs can mean "reversal" or "removal," as in "deforest" or "decentralize." Attaching it to "politicize" produces a verb meaning to strip political content or influence away from something, so that a subject once charged with partisan meaning is made neutral. The past tense and past participle "depoliticized" carry that same sense of a completed change: an institution, debate, or agency that has been depoliticized is one from which political influence has been removed.