Word

deracinate \dee-RAS-uh-nayt\, transitive verb:

Meaning

1. To pluck up by the roots; to uproot.

2. To displace from one's native or accustomed environment.

Examples

In the People's Republic, communism's utilitarian bent first poisoned the culinary arts and then, in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, tried to deracinate what were regarded as the insidious strains of China's former culture.

--Benjamin and Christina Schwarz, "Going All Out for Chinese," [1]The Atlantic, January 1999

He was a Jew who was never given a chance to belong anywhere, a deracinated intellectual.

--David Cesarani, [2]Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind

Extra

Deracinate comes from Middle French desraciner, from des-, "from" (from Latin de-) + racine, "root" (from Late Latin radicina, from Latin radix, radic-). The noun form is deracination.

Paragraph

Those were the dreadful days of India, the worst nightmare ever, where thousands and thousands of people were deracinated. Losing not only their belongings and properties, but also their loved ones. No wonder these people lost their mind too and started blaming each other to the point that thousands of people got killed in the riots. After deracination, they expected some peace of mind in their country but they were treated as refugees. They were neither considered a part of this country nor the other. The deracinated people could never forgive those politicians who were involved in this country-breaking decision.