devastate

English

/ˈdɛvəsteɪt/

verb
Definitions
  • To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
  • To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
  • To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.

Etymology

Root from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (empty, be lacking, be empty, abandon, leave, wasted, lack, deserted).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*h₁weh₂-

Gloss

empty, be lacking, be empty, abandon, leave, wasted, lack, deserted

Concept
Semantic Field

Quantity

Ontological Category

Property

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms