dereify

English

Etymology

From de- +‎ reify.

Verb

dereify (third-person singular simple present dereifies, present participle dereifying, simple past and past participle dereified)

1. (transitive) To cause no longer to be a single coherent entity; to cease to treat as a recognizable object.
   • 1996, Paget Henry, Paul Buhle, C. L. R. James’s Caribbean, page 247:

     That is, although the insurrectionary consciousness of Antiguan workers is not identical with its African counterpart, it, too, is unable to dereify the social totality and reveal society as a collectively manageable entity.

   • 2019, Wendy Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West, page 103:

     [Hayek] seeks to dereify society as nothing more than individuals and seeks the dethronement of society so that markets and morals may resume their pure and rightful place. However, the state is neither the source nor the enforcer of morality-…

Derived terms

• dereification

Anagrams

• redeify, reedify