Deverbalizing

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Converting a thought, idea or experience into a form that is no longer expressed through words or language
2. Stripping away the verbal character of something so that it becomes a nonlinguistic image, action or concept
3. Removing the spoken or written language from an idea, so that it is conveyed through non-verbal means instead

Etymology: "Deverbalizing" is the present participle of "deverbalize", a verb built in English from the prefix "de-" and "verbalize". The prefix is the familiar one meaning "reversal" or "removal", as in "deforest" or "decode", so the verb literally means to strip away the verbal quality of something. "Verbalize" itself already means to express an idea in words, so the combination runs the process backwards: a noun, adjective or whole thought is converted out of its word-based form and back into something closer to a concept or action. The two parts are plain English formations, so the word needs no foreign root to explain it. Its use is mainly technical, appearing in linguistics, psychology and philosophy of mind, where researchers describe tasks or representations that operate without words. The participle form is used as an adjective in phrases such as "a deverbalizing process", and as a verb in its own right when describing that process.