expropriate •
\ek-SPROH-pree-ayt\ • verb 1 : to deprive of possession or proprietary
rights 2 : to transfer (the property of another) to one's own possession
Examples: The city
council rejected a proposal to expropriate
private property for the highway expansion.
"The city spent
nearly $50,000 to expropriate eight tracts that could be used for a potential
studio expansion." — Michele Marcotte, The
Times (Shreveport, Louisiana), July 21, 2013
Did you know? If you
guessed that expropriate has something in common with the verb appropriate,
you're right. Both words ultimately derive from the Latin adjective proprius,
meaning "own." Expropriate came to us by way of the Medieval Latin
verb expropriare, itself from Latin ex- ("out of" or
"from") and proprius. Appropriate descends from Late Latin
appropriare, which joins proprius and Latin ad- ("to" or
"toward"). Both the verb appropriate ("to take possession of"
or "to set aside for a particular use") and the adjective appropriate
("fitting" or "suitable") have been with us since the 15th
century, and expropriate has been a part of the language since at least 1611.
Other proprius descendants in English include proper and
property.
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