Disincorporate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To dissolve an incorporated entity or organization, causing it to cease legal existence and functions; to undo the state of being formally constituted as a corporate body; to remove or terminate the official corporate status of a group
2. To end the legal existence of a corporation by formally dissolving it; to revoke or withdraw the legal incorporation of an organization; to disband an entity that was once officially recognized as a corporate unit
3. To abolish the incorporation of a business or institution, thus nullifying its corporate status; to dismantle the structure of a legally formed organization; to cease the formal legal recognition of a corporate entity

Etymology: Disincorporate is a plain formation: the prefix "dis-" added to "incorporate," meaning to dissolve a corporation or take away its legal status as a corporate body. The reversal is the whole point of the word. "Incorporate" comes from Latin "incorporare," literally "to put into a body" (in- "into" plus corpus "body"), and English took the sense of forming a legal corporate body from that idea. The prefix "dis-" comes from Latin, where it signalled separation or reversal, and English has long attached it to verbs to undo their action. Trace it back far enough and it shares ancestry with the "two" of "twice" and "twain," which is why its meaning is so often one of splitting apart or undoing.

Synonyms: dissolve, disband, liquidate, abolish, terminate

Antonyms: incorporate, form, establish, create, organize