Disenfranchising

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of stripping individuals or groups of their legal rights and privileges, particularly the right to participate in elections, leads to exclusion from civic processes and involvement in society
2. Removing the legal ability to vote or partake in political decisions from a person or group
3. The process of withholding the power to participate in elections or civic activities from citizens

Etymology: The core of this word is "franchise," which began as a medieval idea of freedom. In Old French, "franc" meant free, and it came from the Frankish name "Frankō," as the Franks were the people who gave the word its sense of freedom. To "enfranchise" someone was to make them free, usually by releasing a serf or granting a townsman rights and liberties. Over time, the sense narrowed to the right to vote, which is the meaning "enfranchise" carries in modern English. The prefix "dis-" reverses that process. Its Latin ancestor, "dis-," gives the sense of undoing or taking away, so "disenfranchise" means to strip someone of a freedom that had been granted to them. The word came into English through Middle English forms of "enfranchise," which were borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French. Its present form, "disenfranchising," describes the act as it happens, and it applies most often to the removal of voting rights.

Synonyms: depriving, disempowering, excluding, marginalizing, alienating

Antonyms: enfranchising, empowering