To remove aspiration (the /h/ sound) from a consonant in phonetics or linguistics.
From de- (remove) + aspirate (a consonant pronounced with a puff of air). Aspirate comes from Latin aspiratus, past participle of aspirare (to breathe on). Used in linguistic analysis and historical sound changes.
When linguists study how languages change over time, they often find that sounds lose their 'aspiration'—that little puff of air—and this process is called 'deaspirate.' It's like watching a language slowly relax its pronunciation habits.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.