imbrute

Etymology

From im- + brute. Akin to Italian imbruttire, Spanish embrutecer, Catalan embrutar.

imbrute means to make brutal. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.

Why this word is great

IMBRUTE — [Verb] To degrade or reduce to the state of a brute, rendering dull, irrational, and animalistic. From the English prefix im- (a form of in-, meaning "into, toward") + brute (from Latin brūtus, meaning "dull, stupid, irrational"). Unlike "debase," which suggests a lowering of quality or character, or "brutalize," which emphasizes the violent act of treatment, to imbrute is to chronicle the terminal condition, the final sedimentation into pure appetite. It is the glazed stare of the prisoner numbed by years of confinement, the refined language of a court devolving into guttural snarls, the delicate mechanism of conscience buried under the weight of daily compromise—the slow tragedy where the human shape remains, but the spark within has guttered out. We fear not the beast we might fight, but the beast we might become.

verb

To make brutal“It was his belief in his father's indifference or dislike that hardened and imbruted him; it is only when he hears how that father loved him that I now melt his pride and curb his passions.”
To degrade to the state of a brute“How deep was the change, made upon the imbruted Asiatics, we may perhaps question.”