eviscerate

English

WOTD – 25 July 2012

Etymology

From Latin ēviscerātus, past participle of ēviscerāre (“to disembowel”), from e- (“out”) +‎ viscera (“bowels”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈvɪsəˌɹeɪt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

eviscerate (third-person singular simple present eviscerates, present participle eviscerating, simple past and past participle eviscerated)

1. (transitive) To disembowel; to remove the viscera.
   • 2004, Bloodbath, Eaten:

     Desecrate me / Tear me limb from limb / Eviscerate me / Chew me to death

2. (transitive) To destroy or make ineffectual or meaningless.
   • 2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “'Groovy, groovy, groovy': listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Coming on stage at sunrise on the Sunday, Jefferson Airplane greet the new day explaining they’re not a “hippie band” but “manic morning music”, then eviscerate Fred Neil’s Other Side of Life. Somebody to Love is also taken at breakneck speed – this turns out to be an energy tablet before a leaden day.

   • 2005, Congress, Congressional Record, volume 151, part 16, page 21847:

     Earlier the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) got up on the floor, and he was upset that somebody had said that the underlying bill would eviscerate the Endangered Species Act.

3. (transitive) To elicit the essence of.
4. (transitive, surgery) To remove a bodily organ or its contents.
5. (intransitive, of viscera) To protrude through a surgical incision.

Synonyms

• exenterate

Derived terms

• evisceration
• eviscerator

Translations

to disembowel

• Bulgarian: изкормвам (izkormvam)
• Dutch: ontdarmen (nl), ontweiden (nl), van ingewanden ontdoen
• Finnish: suolistaa (fi)
• French: éviscérer (fr)
• Galician: eviscerar (gl)
• German: ausnehmen (de), ausweiden (de)
• Hungarian: kizsigerel (hu)
• Latin: ēviscerō
• Maori: tuaki, hāparangi
• Norwegian: ta ut innvollene av
• Russian: потроши́ть (ru) (potrošítʹ), вынима́ть вну́тренности (vynimátʹ vnútrennosti)
• Spanish: destripar (es), eviscerar (es), desentrañar (es)

to make ineffectual or meaningless

• Armenian: բովանդակազրկել (hy) (bovandakazrkel)
• Dutch: ontkrachten (nl),verzwakken (nl)
• Finnish: mitätöidä (fi)
• German: entkräften (de), schwächen (de), bedeutungslos machen, aushöhlen (de), unterlaufen (de)
• Russian: опустошать (ru) (opustošatʹ), опорожнять (ru) (oporožnjatʹ)

to elicit the essence of

• Dutch: uithollen (nl)
• Finnish: kiteyttää (fi)

to remove an organ or its contents

• Finnish: poistaa (fi)
• German: Organ entnehmen

to protrude through surgical incision

• Finnish: leikata (fi)
• Russian: выхолащивать (ru) (vyxolaščivatʹ)

Further reading

• “eviscerate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “eviscerate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “eviscerate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• tea service

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

eviscerate

1. inflection of eviscerare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

eviscerate f pl

1. feminine plural of eviscerato

Anagrams

• esercivate, sceveriate

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /eː.u̯is.keˈraː.te/, [eːu̯ɪs̠kɛˈräːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /e.viʃ.ʃeˈra.te/, [eviʃːeˈräːt̪e]

Participle

ēviscerāte

1. vocative masculine singular of ēviscerātus

Spanish

Verb

eviscerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of eviscerar combined with te