divest

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French devestir, also devester,^[2][3] from Old French desvestir (“to undress”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from des- (“away”) and vestir (“to clothe”),^[2][3] from Latin vestiō (“to clothe”),^[3][2] from vestis (“garment”),^[6][5] from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to clothe”).^[3] English first had the form devest, recorded from the 1560s,^[3][2] and the word was respelled divest about 1600.^[3] The OED explains the new spelling as a refashioning after Latin models: the medieval Latin form Medieval Latin disvestīre was corrected to dīvestīre on the pattern of classical verbs such as dīvellō and dīvertō, and the general preference for the Latin forms of prefixes let divest replace devest except in legal use, where both survive.^[4] The American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart likewise see the influence of Medieval Latin dīvestīre, to undress,^[7][2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged that of the Latin prefix dis-.^[8] It is related to vest and invest.^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strip or dispossess oneself of something: Barnhart dates the word to 1605, in Shakespeare's King Lear,^[2] which the OED cites from the 1623 Folio.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1623.^[8] The earlier form devest meant to strip a person or thing of possessions or rights from 1563, and to strip of clothes from 1582.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses, stripping someone of possessions, rights or qualities, came first in devest and passed to divest,^[4][2] although Etymonline calls "strip of clothes, arms or equipage" the etymological sense.^[3] The OED records divest in the figurative sense of depriving a person of something from 1648, of putting off clothes or anything worn from 1639, and in law of taking away property vested in someone from 1790; the literal sense "to undress" is recorded for divest only from 1814, in Wordsworth's Excursion.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to strip; to make naked" and thought devest the more proper spelling, since the word came from French.^[10] In the 1960s the verb gained an economic sense in the United States: to sell off a subsidiary company, and later to dispose of an investment or business interest,^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1605 – reflexive, to strip or dispossess oneself of something, in Shakespeare's King Lear.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1623.^[8]
• 1638 – to vest or invest (a rare sense, the opposite of the usual one).^[4]
• 1639 – to put off clothes or anything worn; to lay aside.^[4]
• 1648 – to strip a person or thing of possessions, rights or qualities.^[4]
• 1790 – in law, to take away property vested in someone.^[4]
• 1814 – to undress, to strip of clothing or covering.^[4]
• 1962 – originally in the United States, to sell off a subsidiary or a business interest.^[4] Etymonline dates the economic sense to 1961.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deprive someone of a possession, right or quality: The court divested the trustee of his powers.^[8][11][4]
2. divest oneself of: to rid oneself of something; to give up or abandon: She divested herself of every responsibility she could.^[8][4]
3. To sell off or get rid of a subsidiary, investment or other business interest: The fund divested its tobacco holdings.^[8][4]
4. To strip of clothing, ornament or covering; to undress.^[8][11][4]
5. (law) To take away an estate or interest in property that was vested in a person.^[11][4]

Word family

• divestment
• undivested
• divestible
• divestiture

Related words

• disinvest
• devest
• vest
• invest
• vestment

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins