Deprive

How to spell deprive

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce deprive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deprive mean?

1. verbTo prevent someone from having or enjoying something; to take something away from them.

Deprive in a sentence

• The long flight delay would deprive her of a full night of sleep.

• Strict budget cuts threatened to deprive the clinic of basic supplies.

Where does deprive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travels back to the Medieval Latin deprivare, formed from the prefix de-, used here as an intensifier meaning 'completely' or 'away from', joined to the verb privare, which meant 'to rob' or 'to take something from someone'. That verb in turn came from privus, meaning 'one's own' or 'individual', the same root that gives us 'private' and 'privilege'. The original sense was strongly possessive: to deprive someone was to strip away what was rightfully theirs, and in church Latin it even meant to remove a cleric from office. English borrowed it through Old French depriver in the 1300s, gradually settling into its modern meaning of denying someone the use or enjoyment of something. The spelling trap lives in that quiet middle 'i' and the silent final 'e', plus the temptation to write it the way it sounds rather than echoing its relatives 'private' and 'privation'.

How the word is built

• de- (intensive/away from)
• prive (from Latin privare: to rob, take from, ultimately from privus: one's own)