Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DIVEST
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pronounce
DIVEST:
Several ways are correct. I prefer "dih VEST."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Once you see the word vest inside the words invest and divest, you can't un-see it. (Much like you can't un-see a vest made of real gorilla chest. Thanks, Mr. Burns.)
That "vest" tells you that investing is a way of putting clothes on things, metaphorically: dressing someone up in an honor or a power, or dressing something up with a certain attribute, or, to get extra-abstract, dressing your money up in the new form of whatever you're investing it in.
And, "vest" tells you that divesting is a way of taking clothes off things, metaphorically. We'll explore that word today.
Now that we've explained the vest in invest and divest, while we're talking about clothes and dressing, see if you can explain the cap in cap-à-pie, the thread in threadbare, the shoe in shoehorn, and the sabot (wooden shoe) in sabotage and saboteur.
definition:
Our word "divest" came into English from French. It has Latin roots that literally mean "to un-clothe."
If you divest yourself of something, you get rid of it, as if you had been wearing it and now you're taking it off.
If someone else divests you of something, they take it away from you, as if it were something you were wearing and now they're stripping it off.
And, if some person or group divests, or divests from something, or divests their money or possessions, they're selling or otherwise getting rid of things, as if they had been wearing them and now they're taking them off. Divesting, in this sense, is the opposite of investing. (That is, divesting is taking money or resources away from something; investing is putting money or resources into something.)
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verb, usually the transitive kind: "They divested themselves of it;" "They divested him of it;" "They divested their holdings in that company."
Other forms:
Divested, divesting.
A "divestment," or a "divestiture," is an act of selling something off, or the thing being sold off.
how to use it:
The word "divest" has a very formal, serious tone: we often use it to talk about big money and big business.
We say that this person or that company is divesting its holdings, or divesting from another company, or from an industry.
Often, more specifically, we talk about people or groups divesting from certain groups, industries, or activities that are outdated or morally problematic.
examples:
"I urge you to divest from companies... that contribute to human rights violations."
— Keith Krach, "Letter to the Governing Boards of American Universities," 18 August 2020
"Some physicists argue that unobserved particles are simply none of our business; the business of physics is predicting observations. Let philosophers handle the unobserved particles. Physicists thus divest themselves of awkward questions and focus on what they do best."
— Jed Brody, Salon, 28 March 2020
has this page helped you understand "divest"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "divest" without saying "withdraw investments from" or "remove approval by removing funding."
try it out:
There's plenty of talk in the news these days about the need to divest from fossil fuels. Those in favor of divesting argue that we must stop the flow of money into the industry, and eventually kill the industry altogether, in order to save our species from the effects of climate change.
With this movement in mind as an example, talk about another time when people banded together to divest from some industry they deemed poisonous.
Or, look to the future, and talk about what it might be like when people eventually divest from some industry that's still going strong today.
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.
Our game this month is Perfectly Cromulent Words!
In each issue this month, match a scene from The Simpsons to the term that it calls to mind.
To see the answer, scroll to the bottom of the issue.
Try this one today:
Does the scene below suggest the word metronomic, iconoclastic, or onomatopoetic?
review this word:
A. a HARVEST.
B. a TRAVESTY.
C. an INVESTMENT.
2. In Old Church Lore, William Andrews wrote: "[In] the Youghal churchyard... Death is here divested of its horror, and _____ the softened aspect of stillness and unbroken repose."
A. emits
B. wears
C. brandishes
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.
Our word "divest" came into English from French. It has Latin roots that literally mean "to un-clothe."
Part of speech:
The word "divest" has a very formal, serious tone: we often use it to talk about big money and big business.
"I urge you to divest from companies... that contribute to human rights violations."
Explain the meaning of "divest" without saying "withdraw investments from" or "remove approval by removing funding."
There's plenty of talk in the news these days about the need to divest from fossil fuels. Those in favor of divesting argue that we must stop the flow of money into the industry, and eventually kill the industry altogether, in order to save our species from the effects of climate change.
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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