Illegitimating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of declaring something as not legitimate or official status
2. The process of denying the lawfulness or rightful validity of something
3. An act that challenges the official or accepted status, rendering it without legal recognition

Etymology: "Illegitimating" is the present participle of "illegitimate," a verb meaning to declare something not legitimate. The root "legitimate" comes from Latin "legitimus," meaning lawful or conforming to law, built from "lex" (law). English took "illegitimate" from Latin "illegitimus," which had the negating prefix "in-" attached, so the word means literally "not lawful." The adjective is first recorded in English in 1536, and it was borrowed most likely via Middle French "illegitime." The ending "-ate" is a verb-forming suffix from Latin, which is what allows "illegitimate" to be used as a verb at all. That turns a description of something unlawful into an action: to illegitimate a claim or institution is to rule it invalid. The verb form is the newer use, so the "-ing" form here follows that later, more active sense of the word.

Synonyms: invalidating, nullifying, voiding, discrediting, disavowing