depersonate

English

Etymology

From de- +‎ person +‎ -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Verb

depersonate (third-person singular simple present depersonates, present participle depersonating, simple past and past participle depersonated)

1. To depersonalize; to remove the status of a person.
   • 1847, The Biblical review, and Congregational magazine:

     Is there not a tendency to speak of the operation of the Holy Spirit as that of an influence, rather than an agency — to depersonate or impersonate Him?

   • 1993, Herbert F. Tucker, Critical essays on Alfred Lord Tennyson, page 101:

     In "St. Simeon Stylites" (1833), camparably, the monologist's obsession with gaining a sanctified fame leads him to depersonate himself into the very stone pillar on which he sits, the epithet by which he has his identity: he names himself, "I, Simeon of the pillar, by surname / Stylites, among men; I, Simeon, / The watcher on the column till the end" (lines 158-60).

   • 2014, Despina Kakoudaki, Anatomy of a Robot:

     The fantasy of robotic masses expresses a complex desire, to embody and depersonate at the same time.