To reverse assimilation; to separate, distinguish, or cause to become unlike when previously made similar.
From dis- + assimilate (from Latin assimilare, meaning to make similar). This linguistics and anthropology term describes the process of reducing similarity or reversing cultural/linguistic blending.
Linguists use 'disassimilate' to describe when languages that were becoming similar drift apart again—like how American and British English were becoming more similar in the 1900s but are now diverging.
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