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Does anyone know a word for understanding of something 'to be stripped of meaning'?
It can be an English word or any other language.
Other phrases I've used to search: 'to be robbed of meaning' or 'to be depleted of meaning.'
The closest I've come in English is desacralize but that is more in a religious sense. I'm seeking an understanding in a cultural sense. Not just meaninglessness or emptiness but a violent stealing of that meaning. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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'to be robbed of meaning' or 'to be depleted of meaning.'
Well, Aorto, I think the worst thing that could happen to anyone, short of physical torture unto death, is to be stripped, shorn, of one's dignity, unjustly, deliberately, mercilously, callously.
So I would say the word you are looking for is "dignifile".
A stripping of another person's dignity in this manner would be a "dignifilement", as dishonorable and debased and cowardly as any physical defilement.
A "defacement" is a defilement which strips only skin deep, Aorto. It does not strip to the soul.
Likewise "desecration". It is a strike at the soul which cannot penetrate the soul.
A "dignifilement" ruptures the soul.
To recall a word from last's weeks selection of AWADs, a forceful, unjust, malacious or sadistic stripping naked of another person's dignity is a diriment of their dignity. Hence, dignidiriment. Revised 1/26.
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aorto, help me crystalize the concept..
do you mean a reduction to the absurd, robbing of any value:reductio ad absurdum?
or maybe to strip or simplify and distort the meaning: bowdlerize
or to remove or detract from (its meaning) intentionally: weasel
or to purposely confound: spiflicate ;)
or simply to render worthless: stultify, disworth
I don't expect that it's any of these, I'm just trying to zero in.
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From Dr. Bill [wwh]:
for aorto's word, I coined 'dereify'. Couldn't find it in any dictionary, but a number of sites were using it in approximately sense aorto desired. Think it would fly?
[Why not, wwh. Let's give it a try!]
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I'm not sure that we have a single word in English for 'violently stripped of meaning'; tsuwm's stultify comes pretty close. But if a phrase will do, you might try "disemboweled of its meaning".
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one synonym for reify is materialize.
is "dematerialize" what is wanted here, aorto?
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It would be good to know a couple examples of specific context. I understand that you're not looking for 'stripped of meaning' in a religious context, but for something stripped of meaning in a cultural context. Your 'robbed of meaning' is good.
Can you give a couple of examples of what in the culture that you've been thinking about that have been robbed of meaning? Very interesting question! And the responses are terrific! The only thing I thought of immediately was simply 'lost all meaning.' But 'stripped of meaning' and 'robbed of meaning' are both clear images. Context will help a lot. Thanks.
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Everyone here is great!!!! Better than my Thesaurus, that's for sure.
I think the closest I've seen would be 'stultify' or 'desecrate'. I think 'desecrate' comes closest.
My seeking strays into philosophy a bit due to some of the premises but the idea is more along the lines of our continued homogeneity (speaking from the United States) that we see and, by extension, ultimate bankruptcy of culture as a whole.
'Culture' is really anything other than us. As we lose culture in this country, we move on to other countries. A logical progression seems to indicate that at some point in the future, 'culture' as such will cease to exist. We will all be the same.
Meaning implies a distinction, almost the antithesis of homogeneity. In our homogeneous culture, meaning is leaving. It is being surrendered or even stolen by a conglomerate force that drains the meaning from it, leaving us homogenized, sterile, empty, meaningless.
I suppose this would mean 'nihilism' but nihilism is not the term I'm after in regards to depletion of meaning in this manner.
I'm not sure if that helps and I'm not sure if there is an English word for it. Sometimes words or phrases from other languages ('reductio ad absurdum' is definitely on the right track).
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