deracinate
/dɪˈrasɪneɪt
/verb [with object] (usually as adjective deracinated)
Uproot (someone) from their natural geographical, social, or cultural environment: a deracinated writer who has complicated relations with his working-class background...
- We are deracinated Chinese, stripped of our regionalism, belonging neither here nor there.
- These questions haunt a society that is deracinated, fragmented, where the social consensus is constantly unsettled - where you escape the security of the beliefs you were raised in before you even have time to fully assimilate them.
- Mass migration has intensified that sense of being deracinated.
Derivatives
deracination
- Our fathers presided over the ruthless deracination of political reportage in this country, and we intend to make amends during this campaign.
- This fine novel of loss, love and deracination is set in the wetlands of the Somerset Levels in 1946 during one of the worst winters for decades.
- She identifies deracination as the defining condition of the modern world.
Origin
Late 16th century: from French déraciner, from dé- (expressing removal) + racine 'root' (based on Latin radix).