Derealize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To perceive the surrounding world as strange, unreal, or distorted, often feeling detached from reality
2. Having a sense that the environment or external surroundings are not real or are altered in some way
3. Experiencing a feeling where the outside world seems unfamiliar, dreamlike, or disconnected from normal perception

Etymology: "Derealize" is a plain formation: the prefix "de-" (meaning removal or reversal, from Latin "dē") attached to "real," which came into English in the 1400s through Old French "reel" from Late Latin "reālis," then the suffix "-ize," which traces back through Late Latin "-izāre" and Greek "-ízein" and turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning "to make or treat in a certain way." Put together, the word means roughly "to make something no longer real," and in the sense used today, it describes a mental state rather than an action on objects. The word belongs to the same family as "realize" and "realise," which have an older history: "realize" originally meant to make something actual, and only later came to mean grasping something mentally. "Derealize" follows the pattern of the "make real" sense rather than the mental one, so its literal meaning is closer to "unmake the real." The modern psychological sense of feeling that the world is unreal developed in the 20th century, reflecting how the term was adopted in clinical discussion.