depopulate

Meanings

1. To reduce the population of a region by disease, war, forced relocation etc.
2. To remove the components from a circuit board.
3. To become depopulated, to lose its population.

1. Depopulated (sense 1).
2. Barren, devoid of inhabitants; utterly destroyed, devastated .

Etymology

First attested in 1531; borrowed from Latin dēpopulātus, perfect active participle of dēpopulor (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Compare depeople, French dépeupler, Italian spopolare, Spanish despoblar, Portuguese despovoar and Romanian despopora; by surface analysis, de- + populate. Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.