To deprive someone of the possession of something, especially property or land; to force someone to give up ownership.
From Old French despossesser (dis- meaning away + possess). Legal term meaning to remove ownership, particularly of real estate or inherited property.
Throughout history, 'dispossession' is the polite legal term for devastating personal tragedy—when governments dispossess Indigenous peoples of land or when colonizers dispossess colonized peoples, it's an enormous injustice described with a bureaucratic word.
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