Hyperpolarizing

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Causing a cell's membrane potential to become more negative than its resting state, reducing the likelihood of generating an action potential; making a system or situation more intensely polarized or divided; shifting an equilibrium or condition to an extreme polar state
2. Inducing an increase in the negative charge across a membrane, thereby inhibiting excitation; intensifying the separation of opposing factors or groups; driving a balance toward a highly polarized or extreme condition
3. Effecting a greater negativity inside a cell relative to outside, which suppresses activity; heightening the division between contrasting elements; causing a state to be pushed further toward the poles of an opposing spectrum

Etymology: "Hyperpolarizing" is the present participle of a verb built from two parts: the prefix "hyper-", from Ancient Greek "hyper" meaning "over" or "beyond," and "polarize," which itself grew out of the idea of a pole. Put together, the verb means to push something past its polar state, carrying the sense of "over-polarizing" into a more extreme condition. The prefix has a long pedigree, tracing back through Ancient Greek "hyper" to Proto-Indo-European roots meaning "up" or "over," and it entered English as a living building block, so modern scientists and commentators can attach it to nearly any word they need to intensify. "Polarize" arrived with the sense of concentrating a beam of light or a magnetic field toward two opposed poles, and its figurative use for splitting a group into opposing camps followed from that physical image. The result is a word that gives a precise technical meaning in neurobiology, where a cell's membrane becomes more negatively charged than at rest, and a looser political meaning, where a debate or society is driven further toward its extremes.

Synonyms: polarizing, depolarizing

Antonyms: depolarizing