Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DISSOCIATE
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pronounce
DISSOCIATE:
Say it "dih SO she ate."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
You smell popcorn, and you associate that smell with going to the movies, right?
Or, you hear a ukulele, and maybe you associate that sound with leis, hula skirts, and salt-smelling breezes.
How would you fill in this blank? "I always associate pizza with _____."
By saying that you associate one thing with another, you're using a cute little metaphor that's woven into our language. To associate things is, literally speaking, to make them sociable with each other: to put them together, to make them hang out or keep each other company, to consider them part of the same society.
And to pull them apart? That's to dissociate them. "I could never dissociate the smell of popcorn from the excitement of going to the movies."
Dissociate, along with associate, social, society, and so on all trace back to the Latin word for "ally or companion," socius.
If you dissociate yourself from your allies, or from your companions, you've removed yourself from their company. You don't hang out. You don't keep company with them. You're no longer sim___ico (no longer "getting along well together"). You have no more c_m_r_derie (no more "spirit of loyal, fun, easy friendship").
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Dissociate" has Latin roots that literally mean "to un-join," or less literally, "to separate, to remove from companionship."
To dissociate yourself from a group, or from things or ideas, is to cut yourself off from them: to separate yourself from them, and--literally or figuratively--to no longer keep them company or spend time with them.
And to dissociate two things is to separate them, to cut them off from each other, as if making sure they don't keep each other company.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech: verb, usually the transitive kind: "we dissociate this from that," "they've become dissociated from it," "he dissociated himself from them."
Other forms: dissociated, dissociating, dissociation, dissociative.
how to use it:
Although the word "dissociate" has been around in some form or another since 1611, it took on a psychological tone around 1890, when the psychologist William James wrote about people being dissociated, meaning, made up of more than one consciousness each. And, around 1994, we started hearing about "dissociative identity disorder," or multiple personalities. So, the word "dissociate" definitely still has that heavy, serious, psychological tone.
You might talk about people dissociating themselves from the ideas, groups, and movements that they no longer want to be connected to.
Or, talk about people dissociating something from something else. Here's the Washington Post: "choices that are dissociated from costs or complexity."
And if you talk about people simply dissociating, then you're saying they're disconnecting themselves from reality, or from their own bodies. Here's Lady Gaga, discussing a serious trauma: "My whole body went numb; I fully dissociated."
examples:
"It’s women like Marissa Mayer and Cheryl Sandburg who help the world dissociate technology from gender and encourage the next generation."
— Sarah Lahav, Forbes, 9 March 2014
"The audience, deeply embedded in the girl’s subjectivity... [tries] to locate a stable perspective from which to judge the situation. Which is precisely what [the filmmaker] Ms. Decker withholds. Her scenes are collages of dissociated sounds and decentered images."
— A. O. Scott, New York Times, 9 August 2018
has this page helped you understand "dissociate"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "dissociate" without saying "cut off" or "disconnect."
try it out:
In ancient times, we closely associated medicine with superstition. Dissociating the two has been a long, hard slog. Hippocrates helped.
"Hippocrates was the first to cast superstition aside, and to base the practice of medicine on the principles of inductive philosophy," the Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us. It goes on:
"One of his great merits is that he was the first to dissociate medicine from priest-craft, and to direct exclusive attention to the natural history of disease. [His mind revolted] against the use of charms, amulets, incantations and such devices."
With this important dissociation in mind as an example, talk about two other things that, thankfully, are now dissociated from each other--or, two things that desperately need to be dissociated.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
This month, our game is called "Fix the Grand Spell which was Cast by Short Words."
(Or, in monstrously inflated terms, the game is called "Rewrite the Extraordinary Incantation which was Executed by Monosyllabic Vocables.")
In each issue, I'll offer a familiar quote that I've heartlessly hypertrophied with polysyllabic transplants. You'll restore the quote to its original version, with each word just one syllable long.
That is to say, I'll share a fat, fake draft of a famed quote; you'll say the trim real one.
For example, if I say "Exploit an opportunity while the situation allows," then you say, "Make hay while the sun shines." If I say, "Durations remedy every laceration," then you say, "Time heals all wounds."
From the previous issue:
"Perspicacious optical organs, satisfied spirits, can't experience defeat." --> "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose."
Try this today: "I don't verbalize generic garbage. I verbalize personalized insults."
Say that, but in words of one beat each.
Clues:
Where it's from: a TV show.
The year we first heard it: 2007.
review this word:
But, a near opposite of DISSOCIATE is
A. LINK.
B. SPARK.
C. PARTY.
2. The play was dissociative, _____, but the venue was so tiny that it would have been rude of us to walk out.
A. full of awkward shouting and terrible dad jokes
B. jerking from scene to scene and losing its grip on reality
C. louder and crueler to the ear than a sixth grade Beginning Strings concert
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
You smell popcorn, and you associate that smell with going to the movies, right? "Dissociate" has Latin roots that literally mean "to un-join," or less literally, "to separate, to remove from companionship."
Part of speech: verb, usually the transitive kind: "we dissociate this from that," "they've become dissociated from it," "he dissociated himself from them."
Although the word "dissociate" has been around in some form or another since 1611, it took on a psychological tone around 1890, when the psychologist William James wrote about people being dissociated, meaning, made up of more than one consciousness each. And, around 1994, we started hearing about "dissociative identity disorder," or multiple personalities. So, the word "dissociate" definitely still has that heavy, serious, psychological tone.
"It’s women like Marissa Mayer and Cheryl Sandburg who help the world dissociate technology from gender and encourage the next generation."
Explain the meaning of "dissociate" without saying "cut off" or "disconnect."
In ancient times, we closely associated medicine with superstition. Dissociating the two has been a long, hard slog. Hippocrates helped.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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