immiserate means to impoverish (someone); to make someone sink into misery. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
immiserate is pronounced /ɪˈmɪzəɹeɪt/.
Why “immiserate” is a great word
IMMISERATE — [Verb] To cause someone to sink into a state of profound, abject misery, encompassing both material deprivation and psychological wretchedness. It is a back-formation from the noun 'immiseration', itself formed within English from the Latin prefix in- ("into, upon") and the root of 'miserable' (from Latin miserabilis, "pitiable, wretched"). Unlike "impoverish," which isolates financial destitution, or "oppress," which emphasizes cruel subjugation, to immiserate is to manufacture the comprehensive condition of misery itself. It is the systemic policy that hollows out a town, the slow erosion of spirit in a joyless job, and the calculated extraction of dignity along with wealth—the quiet work of turning a life into a pitiable circumstance.
verb
- To impoverish (someone); to make someone sink into misery.“By far the most powerful dynamic conception of capitalism as a system wracked by unavoidable change is the classic Marxian view in which a working class is first immiserated, then disciplined, finally goaded beyond endurance by a system that systematically exploits and deceives it.”