To remove the quality of being synonymous or to distinguish words that were previously considered synonymous.
From de- (remove) + synonymize (make synonymous), from Greek syn- (together) + onyma (name). The prefix de- reverses the action of synonymizing.
Linguists use desynonymize when languages evolve and words that once meant the same thing develop different shades of meaning—like how 'famous' and 'notorious' both meant 'well-known' but now famous is positive while notorious is negative.
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