degauss means the act by which something is degaussed. It carries an Arena rating of 1538, earned across 56 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, degauss ranks #479 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #968 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,852 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #2,796 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
degauss is pronounced /diːˈɡaʊs/.
Why “degauss” is a great word
To actively neutralize or eliminate an existing magnetic field, especially from a vessel or sensitive device, as a deliberate tactical or technical countermeasure. From the prefix de- ("remove, reverse") + gauss (the unit of magnetic field strength, named for German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss); coined in 1940 by then-Commander Charles F. Goodeve, RCNVR, during World War II. Unlike "demagnetize" (a broad, industrial term) or "shield" (which suggests passive deflection), to degauss is a precise, targeted erasure of a magnetic signature. It is the low hum of a neutralizing coil along a steel keel, the silent scrambling of a vessel's metallic soul to make it a ghost to magnetic mines, and the clinical pass of a handheld wand wiping a monitor's auric memory to a clean slate—a silent, technical exorcism against the invisible forces that would give a target form.
Etymology
From de- + gauss (“unit of magnetic field strength”). A neologism coined by then-Commander Charles F. Goodeve, RCNVR, during World War II.
noun
- The act by which something is degaussed.
verb
- To reduce or eliminate the magnetic field from (the hull of a ship, or a computer monitor, etc.).
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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