Disassimilating

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Becoming less similar to a surrounding group or body by reversing a previous process of absorption into it
2. Moving away from a dominant culture or body so as to lose the traits once absorbed into it
3. Separating from an absorbed state, so that something once merged regains its distinct character

Etymology: "Disassimilating" is the present participle of "disassimilate", which is formed from the prefix "dis-", meaning "apart" or "reversing", attached to "assimilate". The verb "assimilate" comes from Latin "assimilare", meaning "to make like", built from "ad-" ("to") and "similis" ("like"). So the root idea is a process of making something alike, and "disassimilate" reverses it: pulling something back out of a like-making process so that it stands apart again. The reversal is the whole point of the word. In biology, "assimilate" describes an organism taking in food and converting it into its own substance, and the opposite process, breaking down and releasing or excreting material, is what gets described as disassimilation. Its counterpart in biochemistry, catabolism, is the broader term for breaking molecules down, while "disassimilating" is more specific to the reversal of the building-up direction. Because "dis-" is a productive prefix in English, the verb can be formed freely wherever someone needs to describe undoing assimilation in a different sense, such as a group or culture separating itself from an absorbing majority.

Antonyms: assimilating, assimilate