Invalidatory

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. "Pertaining to the act of invalidating or nullifying something
2. Relating to the process that renders an action or agreement ineffective
3. Characterizing measures or claims that declare something invalid or void"

Etymology: "Valid" comes from Latin "validus", meaning strong or powerful, which in turn comes from "valere", to be strong. Adding the negative prefix "in-" produced "invalidus", meaning weak or infirm. English kept that physical sense in "invalid", a person who is sick or disabled, before the word's legal and logical senses took over. "Invalidate" comes from Medieval Latin "invalidare", to make weak, and it moved from weakening a thing to nullifying it. A contract or argument that is invalidated loses its force entirely. Its meaning reflects that shift: from reducing strength to removing legal or logical standing. "Invalidatory" adds the English suffix "-ory", which comes from Latin "-orius" and forms adjectives meaning serving or tending to do something. So the word means serving to make void. It is a rare formation, built from existing English parts rather than borrowed whole.

Synonyms: nullifying, annulling, voiding, negating, cancelling

Antonyms: validating, confirming, upholding, supporting